CHINE, DYNASTIE QING, XVIIIEME-XIXEME SIECLE

Handles on such dishes or marriage bowls are most commonly carved as bats or dragons, however the unusual use of the butterflies on the current dish is highly auspicious at a number of different levels and is an appropriate symbol to complement the use of this dish as a marriage gift. The two handles depicting butterflies facing one another signify the joyful meeting between a man and wife. The combination of butterflies and gourds in the central part is a pun on the wish for progeny, the Chinese words for gourds, gua and butterflies die being homonyms for part of the phrase guadie mianmian, 'May there be ceaseless generations of sons and grandsons'. The depiction of the gourd stems bearing fruits with plentiful seeds re-enforces the image.