拍品 300
300
A PAIR OF LARGE CLOISONNE ENAMEL FIGURES OF MAGPIES
A PAIR OF LARGE CLOISONNE ENAMEL FIGURES OF MAGPIES

LATE 18TH/19TH CENTURY

细节
A PAIR OF LARGE CLOISONNE ENAMEL FIGURES OF MAGPIES
LATE 18TH/19TH CENTURY
Each shown standing with head turned inquisitively to the side, the beak open to expose the tongue, with predominantly black and white body and multicolored wing and tail feathers
13 in. (33 cm.) long (2)

拍品专文

The magpie is the bird of happiness, who carries good news. It is also the harbinger of spring. As Fang Jing Pei notes in Symbols and Rebuses in Chinese Art, Berkeley/Toronto, 2004, pp. 120-1, the chatter of a magpie is an omen of success to the scholar about to take his Civil Service Examination, and "a dream of the magpie before one's examination is a prediction of achievement". Because of a legend regarding the founding of the Manchus the magpie had great significance to the Manchus and therefore was a frequent subject in paintings and other decorative arts in the late Qing dynasty.