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Vase Decorated with Deer-and-Pine-Tree Pattern - Image 1
Vase Decorated with Deer-and-Pine-Tree Pattern - Image 2
Vase Decorated with Deer-and-Pine-Tree Pattern - Image 3
Vase Decorated with Deer-and-Pine-Tree Pattern - Image 4
Public Domain

Jingdezhen kilns

Vase Decorated with Deer-and-Pine-Tree Pattern

1729-1769

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Jingdezhen kilns

Vase Decorated with Deer-and-Pine-Tree Pattern

1729-1769

Physical Qualities "Slippery stone" (huashi) porcelain with underglaze cobalt decoration, 7 1/2 H x 3 3/8 Diam. in. (19.1 x 8.6 cm.)
Credit Line Bequest of Francis Burns Harvey
Object Number 1931.20.72
This vase features symbols of longevity: a pine, a deer, and a fungus. The pine tree is a Confucian symbol of endurance and a Daoist symbol of long life. The deer, another Daoist emblem of long life, possesses the ability to find the lingzhi fungus of immortality, which grows here beneath the pine. Considered with 1931.20.72-73, the three vases show that some porcelain decorators followed patterns yet added their own variations. A crane, another Daoist longevity symbol, appears on one. On the others, bats swoop downward carrying the message “happiness descends from heaven,” since the words for bat and happiness share the same sound. Look also at how the deer and trees were painted, as well as the presence or absence of landscape features like rocks.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by bequest, 1930; Francis Burns Harvey, Baltimore

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Jingdezhen kilns
Vase Decorated with Deer-and-Pine-Tree Pattern
1729–1769