Peaches and Immortality II

Porcelain seal ink container, San Francisco Asian Art Museum

I wrote about the connection between peaches and immortality in Chinese culture, art, and literature in September. When attending the 54th annual International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society Convention in San Francisco last week, peaches once again kept popping up all around me.

There were peach-themed snuff bottles, peach-shaped snuff dishes, and peach-decorated seal ink containers, plates, and vases. Peaches were present in private and public snuff bottle collections, in lectures, and at museums. I took this as a good sign.

Here are five immortal peach-decorated and designed objects from San Francisco (one above and four below).

Inside-painted glass snuff bottle decorated with Monkey King stealing peaches

(Liu Kunyan, 1994)(private collection)

Peach-shaped snuff dish ("Produced by/at Shen De Tang")(lecture slide)

Qing Dynasty Kangxi Emperor (1654-1722) porcelain plate, overglaze polychrome enamels, peach with characters for "Ten Thousand Longevities," San Francisco Asian Art Museum

Qing Dynasty Qianlong Emperor (1736-1795) porcelain vase, overglaze polychrome enamels, San Francisco Asian Art Museum (almost identical to vase at Boston Museum of Fine Arts)