As a collector or dealer, when you are collecting or dealing either with our Chinese snuff bottle or netsuke, inro, etc., you probably don't quite understand the meaning of some of our Chinese art designs, I believe that you are interested in knowing about it, usually, for the snuff bottle, netsuke, inro, etc., there is a meaning for each art design, now I would like to tell you our Chinese symbolism for some common Chinese art designs:
- Dragon: It's the symbol of power, it is also the symbol of Emperor in our ancient China. If the design is with dragon and phoenix together, they mean man and wife, in China, we used to refer to the perfect combination and couple, they usually refer to the elite talented man and his matched beautiful wife or girl friend.
- Cicada: In our Chinese language, "cicada" has the same pronunciation as "dhyana", so, people naturally associate their meaning together, in Buddhism, it means the prolonged and intense contemplation; deep meditation.
- Kirin: This is the kind of ancient animal that will bing good luck and fortune to you.
- Fish: It's the symbol of wealth.
- Bats: Good luck and fortune, our Chinese artists usually like to create an art design with five bats, that means The Five Blessings: long life, wealth, health, virtue, and a natural death.
- Deer: Riches. As I explained above, bat mean good luck, sometime, you will see the kind of art design which the artists put the bats and deer together with the peaches, as peach mean longevity, so this kind of art design will mean good luck, riches, and longevity.
- Tortoise: Longevity & Immortality.
- Tiger: Courage and Bravery.
- Horse: Uprising, struggling spirit. When there are eight horses racing together, that means you are going to develop a booming business.
- Snake: The woman.
- Magpie: Happiness.
- Peacock: Dignity and Beauty.
- Yin & Yang: Man & Woman. The most often seen scenery is the Yin & Yang playing in the water. We call in "Yin Yang Xu Shui" in Chinese to describe this kind of scenery.
There are still some other art designs which I may ignore, anyway, it's a bit difficult to make a complete list for every art design, I think these are the most seen art designs listed above. But, please always feel free to ask me if you are interested in knowing the meaning of any specific Chinese art design, I would be happy to tell you as far as I know, or I can consult with our Chinese artists if I myself even don't know about it.
Anyway, I hope my above explanation will be helpful for your better understanding on some Chinese art design in our collectible items, if you are specially interested in knowing any particular art design, please send me the picture in jpg file format, I will explain to you.
Besides, as all our netsuke are hand carved and signed by our Chinese carvers, there is an artist signature, you may see several Chinese characters carved on each netsuke, also for our artist inside painted snuff bottle, or some other kinds of snuff bottles, you may find an artist signature or some Chinese characters which you would like to know what it is, please just send me the picture, if they are listed in my online samples pictures albums, please let me know the item #, I would like to explain to you, for some artist signatures, I may recognize the artist themselves, as I am working closely with them, and if you are interested in them, I may provide you their art profile for you, at least for all items listed in my samples pictures albums. Anyway, I hope my Chinese cultural knowledge and background will give you some help, I hope to make your purchasing from me to be a satisfactory and pleasant experience, enjoy your happy hunting and purchasing from me.
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