Chinese art is flush with auspicious images as wishes for blessings (fu), wealth, longevity, fertility and sons, achievement of high status, harmony and many others. These symbols are readily understood by all and are used to decorate all types of folk and religious art such as sculpture, painting, ceramics, textiles and furniture. In addition to the Chinese Eight Treasures, other popular auspicious images include Scholarly Objects: a book, brush, lute, ink stone ink cake or scrolled paper; Wealth and Prosperity Symbols: coins, gold or silver bars, paper money, clouds, crabs, dear, scepter; Rank and Success: peacock feathers, wine cup, peony; Harmony and Peace: flowers, teapot, vase; Long Life: Longevity gods, plum blossoms, bats, butterflies, crane, pine, scepter for power and wealth ….and many more.
There are many Hindu auspicious symbols including the conch shell (shankha), an auspicious symbol signifying the five elements: water, fire, air, earth and space or void. When blown, the conch produces the sacred sound (om), which embodies divine energy and the primal sound from which all creation evolved.
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This small vibrant carpet square with fringed edges can be used for meditation to sit on, an accent piece or hung on a wall. Made from wool and natural dyes, it has a cotton foundation and double weft with a medium wool pile and fine geometric designs. Meander designs and geometric motifs surround the center…
Finely crafted antique boxes like this were often used to store jewelry and valuables in the top and money in the side drawer with a teardrop metal pull. Told it was a lucky money box, it was likely a gift to wish newlyweds a harmonious, successful and happy life. Auspicious carved images are symbols for…
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 to communicate…
Chinese have historically used various materials for making pillows including stone, jade or wood, but long ago ceramic porcelain and earthenware became the primarily used material. Initially for sleep, ceramic ones were also used as opium pillows. Ceramic pillows were made in many forms and shapes but primarily to cradle the neck. In the winter…
Shiwan stoneware wall pockets were used to hold functional items like flowers and chopsticks and were in most Chinese homes by the late Qing Dynasty. Chopsticks holders were symbols for fertility and traditionally part of a dowry as the word for chopsticks (kuizi) is a pun for ‘speedy arrival of sons’ Perhaps having a two-part…
This delicately carved and beautiful antique document holder was probably a wedding gift as it is decorated auspicious symbols for the newly married couple. The high openwork backing in a hill-like form has two lotuses in gold extending from its side and there is another on the bottom border. The words for lotus in Chinese have…
This stoneware glazed garden stool was used by a wealthy family reflected in its complex designs, auspicious symbols and its use of so much cobalt blue, a highly prized and expensive mineral paint color normally used sparingly. The pierced side to side circles running through the inside from side to side and the pierced design…
For centuries Chinese believed ceramic pillows increased the health, vitality and comfort of the body and soothe the spirit. Their surfaces provided coolness during hot weather and were preferred over soft pillows which were believed to rob the body’s vitality and energy. Made with a variety of glazes and designs, it was believed a pillow…
Burmese carvings are known for fine craftsmanship, masterful decoration, and functional items including carved heddle pulleys used in strip-weaving. Used in pairs at the top of the loom, heddle pulleys are functional and aesthetic and usually decorated with auspicious images symbolizing figures or animals protecting the weaver, assuring good quality weaving, and pleasing the gods…
The well-crafted lacquer covered jewelry box is a fine Chinese vernacular furniture and accessories example from the late Qing Dynasty in the th – 19th century for China’s emerging merchant class who rejected strict formal Ming design. This newly emerged style was made from softer woods such as elm, often brightly colored in red lacquer…
During the Ming and Qing dynasties fu lion images were especially popular in smaller versions used in private homes on home altars, as free-standing decorative Buddhist statues, design elements on furniture and architecture and on utilitarian objects like candlestick holders and bed posts to bring blessings of fu and prosperity. In the Buddhist tradition, they…
Peranakan refers to mixed-blood Chinese living in former British settlements in Penang, Malacca, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia whose forefathers were early Chinese traders, sailors and laborers. Many Chinese traders, laborers, and merchants remained in Southeast Asia during monsoon season before returning married local women living a two-family life. This wealthy population favored Chinese vernacular lacquer…
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