GALERIE NICOLAS FOURNERY

A Chinese famille rose teapot decorated with Lan Tsai-Ho and her attendant. Yongzheng period.

Decorated in the famille rose palette with Lan Tsai-Ho and her attendant, diaper and peonies.

Country:
China
Period :
Yongzheng (1723-1735)
Material:
Porcelain
Dimension:
4.72 in. (12 cm)
Reference :
B542
Status:
sold

Related works

Teapots in the same style are illustrated by Williamson in The book of famille rose (London, 1927, pl. XXII).

Notice

Lan Tsai-Ho is the mountebank of the Chinese Eight Immortals. She poses as a wandering singer, denouncing this fleeting life and its delusive pleasures. The basket of flowers she carries is full of plants associated with longevity (chrysanthemums, plum blossoms, pine, bamboo). Lan Tsai-Ho is sometimes represented as a woman and sometimes as a young male child ; she may also be presented as a hermaphrodite. In the summer she wears thick clothing and a coat, and in the winter she makes her bed in the snow. Lan Tsai-Ho dates from the Tang Dynasty (1766–1122 BC). She is said to have obtained immortality by bathing the boils and sores of a beggar, who is believed to have been Li-Tieguai (another of the Eight Immortals) in disguise. It is believed that one can communicate with the gods by using Lan Tsai-Ho’s basket of flowers.

By appointment only, 10th arrondissement, Paris.
nf@galerienicolasfournery.fr / +33 (0)6 26 57 59 87

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