DIA 150xH50mm, China

This item selected by Furze for the Something Old Something New exhibition and is available at both Mountain Folkcraft and Soil.

This is a folk version of the double happiness bowl; on the refined version the bowl is decorated with the word 囍 (double happiness) and a winding stem pattern that is popular in the Qing dynasty.  While the design is passed down from an official kiln to a commoner’s kiln, the design is abstracted over generation of craftsman.  This is likely to be due to that the craftsman are mostly illiterate and the design was taught to the young apprentice almost as a symbol from their master who has learnt it the same way.  Nevertheless, this abstracted bowl is known to them also as the double happiness bowl, equivalent to the original item.  The painter Wu Kuan Chung made this observation about the under glaze decoration of commoner’s kiln; some ideas which was inspired by daily life, they can being transformed into another type of art form by subtraction, multiplication or other means as long as it is still tied to the origin of living.

Can you spot the work 囍 and the scrolling foliage pattern?

Here are some hints;
the first 2 are folk version of a less simplified bowl and the last being a more refined version.  (I somehow preferred the abstracted version)

Answer: the pattern that looks like # is the word 囍 and the three circle is part of the scrolling foliage  pattern.