Antique Miniature Home Altar Table, Decorative Panels with a Hǒu , China (19433BCK)

Description

Chinese artisans devoted as much time and effort to create small accessories like this home altar table as they invested in larger pieces. It is handcrafted with mortise-and-tenon joints, using no nails or glue which made it more stable and longer lasting. The surface blend multiple layers of different colors  of blacks and reds interspersed by coats of lacquer, all hand applied and rubbed to create a  a rich soft reddish patina. Most antique Chinese decorative furnishings and accessories like this contain symbolic auspicious designs that reflect a wish for fu and the Five Blessings or Happinesses – wealth, health, longevity, love of virtue and a peaceful death. This table might have been a wedding gift for the newly weds with symbols to have many children. The rats symbolize fertility, wealth, and abundance  and are often portrayed, as here, with melons that mean “fertility in abundance.”  Starting in the Ming, White Robed Guanyins were portrayed on mythical beasts, the hǒu symbolizing righteousness, morality, and the mandate of heaven to usher in peace and prosperity. Both Guanyin images and the hǒu are syncretic, associated with the lotus she holds, a Buddhist symbol of purity embraced in Taoism and Popular Religion.  The hǒu resembles a Buddhist or fu lion with its roaring mouth open symbolizing Guanyin’s power over the forces of nature. The hǒu are also revered as mythical animals who gather and guard money for their masters and defend them from bad fortune. This accessory table is functional and a perfect piece on which to create a small home altar and would be unique as wedding gifts. This piece is in the VA Accessories-and-Furniture Collection.