Sold Ceramics - Sold Famille Verte wares 1680-1725 - Flowers, Animals and Long Elizas - Page 1

Object 2011809

Saucer

China

1700-1720

Height: 20 mm (0.79 inch), diameter of rim 129 mm (5.08 inch), diameter of footring 61 mm (2.40 inch), weight 74 grams (2.61 ounce (oz.))

Saucer on footring, flat rim with a foliated edge. Decorated in various famille verte enamels with a qilin and a tiger in a garden, looking up at a flying pheasant. Round the rim a zig-zag lines pattern border. On the reverse three flower sprays. Marked on the base with a shop mark in a double circle in underglaze blue.

The qilin, like the dragon, the phoenix and the Black Warior tortoise, is one of the Four Divine Creatures, siling. The qilin, like the dragon, is a combination of parts, attributes and characteristics of other animals. It has a sheep's head, dragon's scales of fur, a deer's body, the feet and hooves of a horse and the tail of an ox. It can have one horn or a pair of horns on its head. These horns, unlike those of other horned creatures, are fleshly and tipped with white hair. This peculiarity makes it an animal unfit for aggression or war. The qilin for Western perception a strange and fierce-looking creature, is in Chinese mythology most auspicious. It stands for perfect goodwill, benevolence, gentleness and integrity. It is, like the phoenix, said to be very kind towards other living beings. When among other animals, they would lose all sense of their own mutual fear and would not harm each other. When a qilin appears in the world, it is always a happy omen. It comes to humanity only when great events foreshadow the birth of a sage. For this reason, it is most identified with Confucius. It is said that before his birth one appeared to his mother. The pheasant is sometimes used in the place of the phoenix, and partakes of all its attributes, being a common emblem of beauty and good fortune. The tiger is called by the Chinese the 'King of Beasts' and is the greatest of four-footed creatures, representing the masculine principle of nature. Its real or imaginary qualities afford them matter fore more metaphors than any other wild animal. (Williams 1976, p.323 & pp.398-399), (Ströber 2011, p.66)

The presence of the qilin in paintings and decorative arts can be considered a compliment to the reigning emperor. As a result of this symbolic significance, in 1662 the Kangxi Emperor, on the urgings of his advisors, instated the mythical qilin as the highest symbol of rank amongst his military officers,replacing the lion on the military rank badges. There it remained untill the fall of the empire in 1911. (Bjaaland Welch 2008, pp.140-141)

The combination of these three animals (qilin, pheasant and tiger) is strange. Normally the bird in this posture should have been a phoenix. Perhaps decorating instructions were misunderstood or we must see the combination pure for decoration rather than a cultural purpose.

Condition: Restored, two re-stuck pieces to the rim and a drilled hole in the centre (now filled).

References:

Williams 1976, p.323 & pp.398-399

Bjaaland Welch 2008, pp.140-141

Ströber 2011, p.66

Price: Sold.