LATE QING DYNASTY

Jardinières adorned with jadeite-embellished lotus flowers, such as the present pair, are known in Chinese as penjing, which can be translated as “landscape in a jardinière.” The sumptuous and elaborate use of jadeite, pink tourmaline, and other precious hardstones, combined with the intricate design, suggests that this pair of jardinières could have been commissioned for the imperial palace or for a wealthy noble household. The Qing Palace had a long tradition of displaying lavishly decorated penjing made with precious materials and gems, as these penjing remain timeless regardless of the season or weather. A narcissus penjing in a jade twin-handled vase, adorned with jade, ivory, and precious gems, as well as a flowering prunus branch penjing with pearls and jade in a bronze vase, are in the Palace Museum and illustrated by Wang-go Weng and Yang Boda in The Palace Museum: Peking, Treasures of the Forbidden City, New York, 1982, p. 303, nos. 216 and 217.

Embellished penjing, such as these examples, are imbued with auspicious meanings. When these auspicious elements are skillfully combined, they convey even more diverse meanings of good fortune, blending beauty with positive symbolism to create pleasing and delightful effects. For instance, according to Terese Bartholomew in Hidden Meanings in Chinese Art, San Francisco, 2006, p. 19, lianhua (lotus) is a homophone for “continuous” (lian), and when combined with yu (fish), a pun for “abundance,” it becomes the idiom lianlian youyu, which can be translated as “abundance year after year.” The combination of he (crane) and lianhua (lotus) then forms the rebus lianfeng yipin, which can be translated as “May you continuously be promoted to the first rank.”