Antique Carving of Auspicious Fruit Offering, China (19304UAK) $195

Description

Representations of wood food offerings with a lacquer coating are often part of the array of images spread on a temple or home altar and shrines and are substitutes or additions to what is ordinarily fresh fruit and food. This one was an auspicious ornament for a Chinese bed. Very auspicious, food offerings are  medium for communicating with gods and ancestors as part of ancestor-worship to bring blessings to the offerers who then hope to receive their blessings, guidance, virtues and values as well recognized fertility symbols, longevity symbols, etc. Offerings are sometimes held by attendants or often , as here, integrated into furnishings or architectural decorations. The symbolic wish for fertility and producing many sons was reflected the expectation that newlyweds must produce sons soon after marriage  to “…perpetuate the family name and to continue to worship ancestors. To have no descendants is the greatest sin against filial piety.” (Bartholomew p.58)  The pomegranate (shilui) on top of this antique-Chinese-wood-carving is a fertility symbol due to its numerous seeds and is a homophone wish for 100 sons (liukai baizi).  The four fruits below are peach longevity symbols and the combination of the fruits are a wish for many sons and longevity and are perfect gifts for newlyweds. The finely carved fruits were painted with red and browns and covered with lacquer that darkens over time, all preserved in this charming presentation which is in excellent condition.

Sources

Terese Tse Bartholomew, Hidden Meanings in Chinese Art, San Francisco, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 2006.

Primal Trek, “The Hidden or Implied Meaning of Chinese Charm Symbols,” primal trek

Patricia Bjaaland Welch, Chinese Art: A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery, Rutland, Tuttle Publishing, 2008.