Pair of Straits Chinese Porcelain Altar Vases

The pair of slender vases was for use on a Straits Chinese family altar. (The Straits Chinese were also known as the peranakan or the babas and nonyas.) Each has a green background and cartouches on each side decorated in rose pink.  Each of the two main cartouches are decorated with a phoenix in flight over a peony spray – the phoenix and peony motifs are recurring themes in almost all porcelain commissioned from China for the Straits Chinese markets. The areas between the cartouches are amply decorated with sprays of pink peonies.

Phoenixes and peonies traditionally were associated with nonya brides. They were auspicious symbols for weddings and conjugal happiness thereafter, so most such items of nonyaware usually were commissioned for the large and lengthy weddings staged by wealthy Straits Chinese families.

The lower part of each vase has a border of stylised lotus petals in the form of green and rose-pink lappets.

The necks of each vase are decorated with pairs of blue, molded fo dogs, and the shoulders with four rose pink hornless dragons, molded in high relief.

The bases are marked in iron red enamel with a factory mark ‘Tu Mao Xing Zao’. A version of this mark is similarly identified and reproduced in Kee (2004, p. 139). The factory was based in Jingdezhen in China’s Jiangxi Province which is from where most Straits Chinese porcelain was commissioned. Many of the kilns that produced porcelain for export to the various Straits Chinese communities had ceased production by the 1920s.

Vases were not used in the Straits Chinese house to decorate rooms with bunches of cut flowers. Instead, pairs of baluster vases such as this pair were used on the family altar to hold flowers – usually freshly-cut chrysanthemums – meant as offerings to the gods and the spirits of the departed. They were placed on the altar with other religious objects.

The Straits Chinese are the ethnic Chinese of the Straits Settlements and nearby areas who had been in Southeast Asia for enough generations that Southeast Asia was now their permanent home. They had also acculturated with local Malay communities to the extent that their Chinese traditions absorbed some Malay and related traditions, as well as some aspects of European culture. They were Daoist and Buddhist. Many spoke a local patois of the Chinese Hokkien dialect mixed with Malay. They regarded themselves as a distinct community quite apart from the Chinese who had emigrated from China more recently who retained their Chinese culture with little acculturation and who maintained their ties with China.

The upper rims retain traces of gilding. The polychrome enamelling has been applied unevenly here and there as is typical of much Straits Chinese porcelain. Two of the four dragons molded in relief have a chip (which have later been coloured with rose pink to make it less visible) but otherwise the two vases are without chips, cracks or repairs.