Page 38 - For the Love of Porcelain

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‘hree Buddha’s Hand
Fruits’ from Ten Bamboo
Studio Collection
of Calligraphy and
Painting, edited by
Hu Zhengyan, Ming
dynasty, ca. 1633,
British Museum,
inv. no. 1930,0319,0.1
© Trustees of the British
Museum

5 The theme of collections of antiquities mobile merchant, however, the items on 8
Woodblock print of a was popular across the social spectrum. display here might signal their availability in Bai hua shi jian pu
lower basket, made The woodblock print in figure 4 shows the marketplace, and the opportunity they 百华诗笺谱,
by the Ding family of that displaying antiquities was an elite presented for buying the attributes of an elite a two-volume
the Jinchang pavilion, phenomenon as well as a popular theme lifestyle. In Suzhou, members of the Ding collection of letter-papers
Suzhou, ca. 1700 - 50, amongst the merchant classes of Suzhou. clan manufactured prints like the ones in depicting loral designs,
British Museum, The items seen here are all collectibles, such figures 1 and 5 specifically for a wide market Van Gulik Collection,
inv. no. 1906,1128,0.3 as a zither (qin), multi-volume books, a in which different social groups mingled, SINOL, Van Gulik E Pai
© Trustees of the British bronze vessel, and a table made of hardwood. and material goods such as colourful prints HSC, 1911,
Museum There are striking similarities between the (or indeed elegant flower baskets) served as University of Leiden
porcelain plate (the qin next to the books, important markers of status. 10
6 the table to create height in the composition,
Buddha’s hand the tall stand with hanging items to create a Displays of objects as seen in such prints
or Sukadeboom, sense of movement, and the feathers in the often conveyed symbolic meanings. For
Sapindales Rutaceae, vase), and the first print (the bronze with the example, depictions of books, brushes, more specific associations with seasons and,
Citrus medica L., Hortus lion-dog, the tall vase with flowers). brush holders and inkstones all refer to the sometimes, erotic meanings; incense burners
Botanicus, Leiden, Such woodblock prints were produced scholarly world, and symbolise learning (see are references to ancestor worship; the lute
September 2015. Photo in late imperial China in the wealthy, figs. 3 and 4); peacock plumes and coral refers to conjugal bliss; the word for vase
by Alice de Jong. urban, commercialised environment of the and the scarcity of employment opportunities refer to specific grades of officials (second (ping) sounds like the word for peace, and
Yangzi delta. In the eighteenth century, for examination candidates. For literati, the grade officials, for example, wore a button the teapot suggests tranquillity; and so on.
the distinctions between merchant and objects on display might signal learning, of coral on their hat) and thus convey a A colourful print, then, is not merely an
literati culture had become blurred by the connoisseurship, and exclusivity afforded by wish for promotion (see fig. 4); flowers in attractive gift or a depiction of desirable
opportunities for upward mobility that expensive materials and refined techniques general are symbols of beauty and wealth, objects, but a rebus to be decoded, conveying
increased wealth brought to the merchants of working those materials. For the upwardly but each of the different flowers also have a specific set of meanings.

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