Dayazhai Enamel Flower Basket with Phoenix Design and Tea Canister on Pink/Green Ground

The enamel-painted flower basket and auspicious phoenix tea caddy are the result of collaboration between several masters, including Zhang Jian, a master of overglaze enamel and gold-painting techniques from Jingdezhen.

Flower basket pattern:
Flower basket patterns were very popular in the Qing Dynasty. The flower basket pattern symbolizes a flourishing of life and vitality, and represents celebration of joy and victory.

Phoenix pattern:
Phoenix patterns are ancient decorative motifs with strong ethnic characteristics. They evolved from ancient bird totem worship. The male is called Feng and the female is called Huang. In ancient mythology, they were understood as a beautiful and magical divine bird that could communicate between heaven, earth and man.

vine pattern:
The exterior is painted with enamel longevity characters and lotus scrolls, the veins of which are clearly visible. The scrolling lotus branches and leaves are graceful and dynamic, with vibrant colors and gold string patterns. Because of its continuous structure, which symbolizes "endless life," the scrolling pattern is also known as "longevity vine."

Enamel:
Besides the intricate and exquisite painting, the enamel flower basket and phoenix tea caddy requires four firings in the kiln to complete, each with its own risks.
Enamelware from the Qing Dynasty was originally intended for the enjoyment of emperors and empresses. Enamel is a special type of artificially fired pigment. Before the sixth year of the Yongzheng Emperor's reign (1728), it had to be imported from Europe. After the sixth year of the Yongzheng Emperor's reign, the Qing Palace workshops were able to refine more than 20 kinds of enamel pigments themselves, which is a product of the peak period of ancient Chinese polychrome porcelain craftsmanship.