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Golden Wood Carving – Mu Gui Ying

02/05/2015 //
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L400xD60xH170mm, China

This is a scene from the opera “Mu Gui Ying Takes Command”.  The story was set in North Sung dynasty, the Yang were a family mighty warriors, up to the grand mother to the young grandson, fought loyally for their country with many of them killed in the war.  On the day while the family was preparing for Yang Zongbao’s birthday came the bad news – Yang was killed in the field.  The family decided to go for seek for his revenge, grandma She Sai Hua was reluctant to send away her grandson Yang Wenguang, for all the male in the family has died, her husband all all her 10 sons.  Mu Gui Ying, the wife of Zongbao and mother of Wenguang tested her son to see if he is good enough to go to war and it turned out he is a good fighter, so the Mu Gui Ying took command and went to war with her son.

In the wood carving, on the right is Mu Gui Ying on the horse with Yang Wenguang on the horse on the left, the other female of the family were out to see them off.

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Categories figurine, lacquer, wood

Golden Wood Carving

01/08/2015 //
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L250xH130xD60mm, China

A golden lacquered wood carving of the blessed symbols.

Flower – Wealth
Pomegranate (right) – Fertility
Books (behind flower) – Intellect
Painting (behind books) – Scholarly
Gu Qin, musical instrument (right of flower) – Peacefulness

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Categories lacquer, wood

Golden Wood Carving – Story of the Western Wing

12/12/2014 //
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W140xD30xH270mm, China

This is a wood carving based on a scene from the romantic comedy “The Story of the Western Wing”.  It has nothing to do with the White House but a play set in the Tang dynasty about a young couple pursuing with their love for each other without the consent of their parents.  In the old days, marriage are arranged by the parents with the husband and wife to be never meeting each other before the day of the wedding.  Love affairs outside of this arrangement are forbidden and are seen as dishonoring to the family name.

In the scene depicted, the chamber maid, Hong Niang, was caught assisting Cui Ying Ying, the daughter of the chief minister, in seeing the young scholar staying in the western wing of the house.  The lady of the house interrogated Hong Niang with her daughter Cui Ying Ying hidding behind the screen.  In the end the family consented an official marriage on the condition that the young scholar Zhang Sheng would come top in the national official examination (a very difficult task).  Zhang Sheng passed the exam with flying colours, became the zhuang yuan, married Cui Ying Ying and lived happily ever after.

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Categories figurine, lacquer, wood

Peony Lacquer Dish

12/06/2014 //
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DIA330xH90mm, China

A beautiful lacquer serving dish which I found the colour to be warm and x’mas like, the same feeling as scent of the tangerine peels, the taste of cinnamon, the sound of church bells …

The dish is decorated with peony flowers, peony is also know as the flower of riches and honour 富貴花.  There is a story about peony and the mean Empress Wu Zetian, one snowy winter she summoned all the flowers to blossom for her morning wine party.  The gardeners as well as the plants did their best, going against the natural order they all blossomed in fear of the Empress, all but the peony.  The Empress was extremely upset and forbid peony to stayed in the capital Chang An, it was send to Luoyang. There in Luoyang, the peony blossoms filled the city.  When the Empress heard about the news, she ordered for the peony to be burnt, but under the warm of the heat, it blossomed even more.

Click for more information about the special construction of the dish.

Amongst the unique pottery, you will also find Mountain Folkcraft’s collection at the Cobo Ceramic Workshop X’mas Sale.

COBO CERAMIC WORKSHOP
1/F Fortune Court, 33 Morrison Hill Road, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

5 – 9 Dec 2014 (Fri – Tue)
13:00-20:00

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Categories container, lacquer, wood

Golden Wood Carving – Pheonix Towards the Sun

11/19/2014 //
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L430xD60xH110mm, China

This wood carving would have been the center piece of  a furniture.  A pair of phoenix amidst an intricate carving of clouds are flying towards the raising sun.

The phoenix is a pair of mythical birds that symbolizes peace.  These king of birds flying towards the sun represent an expectation of well being to come; a blessing of health, longevity and goodness.

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Golden Wood Carving – Child from the Saints

10/14/2014 //
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W170xD60xH130mm, China

“Child from the Saints” is a popular blessing subject in the Ming and Qing period, symbolizing blessing and fertility.  The legend dated back to the late Han dynasty, when the Wei Emperor to be was a poor farmer.  One spring, when he was working in the field, he saw a immaculate carriage landed from the sky, inside of the carriage was a beautiful lady.  He put away his tools and went to greet the visitor, the lady told him she is send by the Jade Emperor to be his wife, the two got married on the day, the lady saint said she has to go back to heaven and would meet him again a year later at the same place.  A year later, Wei arrived early to the field awaiting for his date, the magic carriage appeared, inside it was the lady saint together with a baby.  She handed him the baby and said he was his son and he will be the Emperor.

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Lacquer Tray

10/03/2014 //
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DIA330xH70mm, China

A lacquer tray of a lion playing with a xiu qiu (a fabric ball), a symbol of blessing from this mythical powerful creature.

The tray is constructed by 8 sections and a flat octagonal size board in the center, held with a wire.  The base of the 8 sections have fine carving painted in gold.

Click here to see our other lacquer trays.

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Golden Wood Carving – Hermit’s Life

09/16/2014 //
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golden wood carvingL210xD35xH100mm, China

The character in this golden wood carving is known as Lin Bu, a poet in the North Sung dynasty, he is surrounded by plum blossoms and there is a crane by his side.  Lin led a hermetic life on a small hill at the West Lake in Huangzhou, never setting foot in the city, he found company with the monks whom he would visit with his small boat.  Lin also admire plum blossoms which he planted around his hut, this also inspired him to write poems about them.  Lin also kept a couple of cranes for company.  It is said that if he got unexpected guests visiting while he is out on his boat, the cranes would flew to him, hoover above his boat and gave him his message.  Lin was never married, the plum blossom being his wife and the crane his sons, this phrase 梅妻鶴子 (Mei Qi He Zi) became a description for a hermetic life.

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Lacquer Tray – Yang Warriors

08/13/2014 //
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lacquer trayDIA330xH80mm, China

A lacquer tray decorated with picture of a scene from the Beijing opera “Tai Jun Ci Cao”.  The story is about the famous Yang family of warriors.

First some background to the story; Commander Lord Yang,  his wife She Sai Hua and their 7 sons was defending the North Han country against the Sung.  Though the Sung army is the stronger one, the Yang’s family out smarted them, the Sung General Pan was shot by Lady’s She’s arrow and had to retreat.  Failing with the attack, the Sung emperor spread rumors about Lord Yang which had the suspicious North Han emperor distrust Yang’s advice and was defeated utterly.  After the victory, the Sung emperor took Lord Yang under his wing and made him a trusted official, General Pan was very jealous of this promotion.

The Liao country start attacking Sung, Lord Yang and his sons was defending Sung at the border.  Yang’s army was out numbered, 3 of his sons were killed in action, he send his 7th son to get reinforcement but was secretly killed by Pan.  Lord Yang was captured and one of his son was captured, Lord Yong committed suicide to avoid being used as a hostage while his son was selected by the Liao Princess to be her husband.  The 5th son was tired of all the fighting and the politics became a monk.  The 6th son managed to escape and returned to the Sung capital and became the commander in place of his father but was later killed in action.

The opera story on the lacquer dish appear at this point, the Sung emperor asked the Yang family to led the fight with the Liao.  With all the males gone, here is only Lady She (now in her 70s), 2 daughters, the daughter in laws and young grandson left in the family.  Lady She, the commander with the female warriors led the army to victory.  When they return safety home, Lady She after losing all her sons fearing that her only grandson too would eventually die in battle ask the Emperor to allow the family to leave their duty as the commanders.

 

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Golden Wood Carving – Double Dragon and Pearl

07/30/2014 //
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golden wood carvingL350xD25xH130, China

This golden wood carving used to be center pediment of an ornamental object, perhaps on small shrine in a temple.

On the carving, there are 2 dragons chasing after a pearl.  Dragons are believed to be mythical creatures from the sky, they need to attain a certain quality to become a saint.  After a few hundred years, the essence of what they have learnt from nature would become a pearl like pellet.  The dragon would spit out the pearl for it absorb the spirit of nature and the bigger the pearl would grow.  One day while a dragon was practicing with his pearl, another dragon decided to take this pearl to speedup his own attainment. The bad dragon spit out his pearl hoping it would absorb the other, the two pearls melted and became one giant pearl, both dragons wanted to take it in and started using all their tricks.  Their fight upset the nature of the universe and the Jade Emperor took them in and set the pearl on the temple which would be protected by the dragons for good

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Categories lacquer, wood
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