Decorated in the famille rose palette, very finely enameled with a cockerel standing on a rock formation amidst leafy blossoming peonies and chrysanthemum beneath a diaper border.
Decorated in the famille rose palette, very finely enameled with a cockerel standing on a rock formation amidst leafy blossoming peonies and chrysanthemum beneath a diaper border.
For a tea bowl with this decoration (Samuel Putnam Avery Sr. (1822-1904) Collection, New York), see Christie’s NYC, Collected in America: Chinese Ceramics from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 15 September 2016, lot 929.
On this dish, the flowers are disproportionately large in comparison to the cockerel. This was a decorative convention which was believed to create harmonious designs.
As is de rigueur for Chinese decorative arts, the subject matter of roosters and flowers satisfies the requirement of being auspicious. The motif of peony (fuguihua) and rooster (gongji) forms a rebus meaning ‘May you be conferred official rank and gain prosperity’ (gongming fugui).
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