AN UNUSUAL PARCEL-GILT CAST-BRONZE 'SHOU' JAR WITH ZITAN COVER AND STAND LATE MING DYNASTY

of archaic pou form, the rounded sides supported on a low splayed foot rising to a short neck with squared everted rim, decorated in relief and gilt with one hundred and twenty-eight different shou characters, all against a finely punched ground, flanked at the shoulders with a pair of zoomorphic mask ring handles, below a gilt scrolling border around the neck and modern meander band at the rim, the domed cover pierced and carved with a pair of bats and two shou characters against a ground of cloud scrolls, rising to a carved lingzhi fungus knop, the stand with five cabriole feet  

The decoration known as baishou zi  (one hundred long-life characters) has traditionally been a popular decorative birthday motif in China. The characters are written in different forms with some adhering more closely to conventional seal script than others. Another version of this design is the wanshou zi (ten-thousand long-life characters), such as that decorating the magnificent blue-and-white jar in the Palace Museum, Beijing, included in the exhibition China. The Three Emperors, Royal academy of Arts, London, 2005, cat.no. 302, where the character 'long-life' is inscribed in ten-thousand different ways. Whether one hundred or ten-thousand, both versions of the design signify eternal life.