Page 41 - For the Love of Porcelain

10
Underglaze blue
porcelain plate, from
a series of four, decora-
9 ted with treasures, in-
Saucer-shaped cluding a lute and an
underglaze porcelain incense burner, China,
dish with a lared rim, 1740 - 60, d. 23.5 cm,
on a footring, China, h 3.0 cm, d. 13.1 cm,
1680 - 1700, d. 38 cm, Princessehof National
Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics,
Museum of Ceramics, Leeuwarden,
Leeuwarden, inv. no. LY 0055
inv. no. GRV 1929-175 (on loan from Fries
Museum)
In conclusion, let me highlight the unusually and grapefruit, and probably here the point means the individual objects convey their small basket full of Buddha’s hand fruits is
shaped citrus fruit in the foreground of the was more to illustrate the joys of depicting message more clearly: a vase with flowers there for a specific reason: to emphasise the
first print. The long-fingered citrus fruit, varieties of textures and colours than to bring peace and beauty, a ruyi to convey particular wish that these objects convey:
which yellows as it ripens (see fig. 6), is the symbolic meanings they represent. the desire that your wishes may be granted. happiness and wealth to the recipient of the
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known as the Buddha’s hand (foshou). When Similarly, there is a Buddha’s hand fruit in But as with the print we started with, the object and the beholder of the image.
portrayed in paintings and on porcelain, a late Qing manual of painting in the Van
it conveys a variety of symbolic meanings. Gulik Collection in the University of Leiden
The fruit resembles the classic hand position library (fig. 8). The inclusion of the Buddha’s
of the Buddha, with the fingers pointing hand fruit in paintings and prints and on
upwards, signaling reassurance (abhaya- porcelain however, shifts the focus away
mudra). But more mundanely, the gesture from painterly skills towards its symbolic
can also suggest the grabbing of money, meanings. The decoration on the saucer
Notes
and therefore acquired an association with in figure 9 might be a specific allusion to
wealth and good fortune. The shading wealth, but more generally it also expresses
1 My thanks to Drs Alice de Jong for her 5 John Hatcher, Laurence Binyon: Poet, Scholar 9 Shane McCausland, ‘The Emperor’s Old Toys:
of colours from green to yellow and the good wishes and happiness, in which wealth assistance with the images. of East and West, Oxford 1995. Rethinking the Yongzheng (1723–35) “Scroll
unpredictable shapes of the gnarly ‘fingers’ undoubtedly plays a role. The precious 2 It appears as item 22 in Laurence Binyon, 6 In fact, the British Museum now gives the title of Antiquities” in the Percival David Foundation’,
A Catalogue of Japanese & Chinese Woodcuts as ‘Antiquities’ (guwan tu 古玩圖). The print Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society
of the fruit, made the Buddha’s hand fruit objects depicted on the blue-and-white plate
Preserved in the Sub-Department of Oriental has also been given the title of ‘Arrangement 66 (2001), pp. 65–75.
a popular item to paint. In figure 7, the in figure 10 combine all these elements. Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, of Antiques and Flowers’. See item 95a in 10 The flower basket is item 17 in Clarissa Von
Buddha’s hand fruit is depicted as part of an London 1916, p. 582. Mark Jones, ed., Fake?: The Art of Deception, Spee, The Printed Image in China: From the 8th
3 The woodcuts in the manuscript known as London 1990, p. 101. to the 21st Centuries, London 2010, p. 79.
eight-volume painting manual compiled by It has been decorated in a far simpler manner Sloane 5252 in the British Library were 7 Eva Ströber (ed.), Ostasiatika, Sammlungs- Figure 4 appears as item 29.
Hu Zhengyan. Volume VII covers twenty than the plate in figure 3. There is more transferred to the British Museum. Ibid., p. 581. kataloge Des Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museums 11 Ibid., pp. 26–35.
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different fruits, including peaches and white space, with fewer objects that are less 4 Waley worked in the British Museum until Braunschweig, Bd. 10, Braunschweig 2002. 12 François Reubi, ‘The Ten Bamboo Studio. An
1929, when he left to devote himself fully to 8 Eva Ströber, Symbols on Chinese Porcelain: Attempt to Identify the Flowers and the Fruits’,
kumquats, apricots and grapes, persimmons carefully arranged to fill that space. But that translating Chinese and Japanese literary texts. 10.000 Times Happiness, Stuttgart 2011. Asiatische Studien 50(1) (1996), pp. 93–107.
36 I vormen uit vuur vormen uit vuur I 37