YONGZHENG PERIOD (1723-1735)

The present dishes each depict two pheasants perched on an ornamental rock beside a branch of peony. According to Terese Tse Bartholomew in Hidden Meanings in Chinese Art, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 2006, p. 123, peony (fuguihua), the “king of flowers”, is closely associated with royalty because it was grown in the imperial gardens, and therefore widely used to symbolize wealth and honor. Pheasant (jinji) and peony, when depicted together, can be interpreted as a pun for the idiom jin shang tian hua (May you continue to enjoy abundance and betterment).