Chinese Porcelain Framed Famille Rose Plaque of Birds with Prunus and Cherry

The beautiful large plaque, in a horizontal format, depicts a pair of birds perched on a flowering branch with pink flowers with a second branch with red cherries. The miniature Chinese cherries are too sour to eat but can be made into preserves with honey. However the tree, its leaves, roots, branches, flowers, and pips being astringent are known to have cosmetic and medicinal properties.

The cherry tree has become the symbol for beauty; poets sing of it rich color of ruby and sapphire.

All within a gilt and black Greek key design frame.

Dimensions: 11 1/2 inches high x 17 inches wide.

Reference: Chinese Art: A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery, Patricia Bjaaland Welch, Page 38 for a discussion of Prunus. The flowering plum, a member of the Prunus mume family, held a special place in Chinese art because the plant was the first of the fruit trees to bloom in late winter and early spring, it thus became associated with the end of winter and the dawning of spring and therefore endurance and hope. Because its buds blossoms and its petals fall so shortly thereafter, it is associated with beauty, purity and the transitions of life, “a spirit of tender ambivalence, embracing pleasure and regret.”

(Ref: NY10464)