Chinese Eight Immortals Offering Tray, C. 1850

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This ornately carved offering tray would have been presented as a gift filled with popular Chinese snacks, such roasted melon … Read more This ornately carved offering tray would have been presented as a gift filled with popular Chinese snacks, such roasted melon seeds, dried fruit, and soybeans toasted with cinnamon, fennel, and other spices. Likely offered as a wedding gift, the tray is lavishly decorated with brushed red lacquer, faded gilt finishes and low relief carvings of florals, geometric scrollwork and auspicious symbols.

Draped in flowing ribbons, the auspicious symbols that surround each compartment are the characteristic accessories of the Eight Immortals, Taoist deities that impart blessings of prosperity and longevity. The eight objects include a hand fan, a double gourd, a flower basket, a fish drum, a lotus flower, a sword, a flute and a pair of castanets. See less