Page 87 - Reginald and Lena Palmer Collection EXHIBITION, Bonhams London Oct 25 to November 2 2021

traditionally associated with the Imperial family, who, as early as the
Tang dynasty, grew peonies in the Palace gardens. The herbaceous
peony (shaoyao 芍藥), mentioned in the ‘Book of Odes’ (Shijing),
was referred to as a token of love and exchanged as a farewell gift.
The second character for crab-apple flowers (haitang hua 海棠
花), recognisable on the vase in the pink five-petalled flowerheads,
provides a rebus for tang (堂), literally meaning meaning ‘hall’ but also
used to represent ‘family’ or ‘family home’. Combined with peonies,
crab-apples form the phrase mantang fugui (滿堂富貴), meaning ‘May
the whole family achieve wealth and honour’.

Symbolic of feminine beauty and charm, the magnolia (yulan 玉蘭)
shares the character for ‘jade’ (yu 玉). The combination of magnolia,
crab-apple blossom, and tree peony implies ‘Fortune at a Jade Hall’,
a poetic name for the Hanlin Academy, an academic institution of
higher learning confined to an elite group of scholars who performed
secretarial and literary tasks at Court.

Compare with a globular vase bearing a similar size and design,
Yongzheng mark and of the period, illustrated by J.M.Beurdeley, La
Ceramique Chinoise, Paris, 1974, col.pls.91 and 92; another example, Yun Shouping (1633-1690) ‘Peonies’, 17th century;
similarly decorated but with an additional peony branch in place of image courtesy of the National Palace Museum, Taipei
the magnolia, previously from the Yokogawa collection, in the Tokyo
National Museum, is illustrated in Oriental Ceramics: The World’s Great
Collections, vol.1, Kyoto, 1982, pl.80.
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