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Wine pot in peach-shape with an opening in the form of a cup, on a splayed foot. The S-shaped spout moulded as a branch with leaves to form a strut, the handle matching. Around the sides peaches, flowers and insects, the cup with overlapping petals. The spout and the handle with striations, a lappet border around the foot.
At the Festival of the Peaches the Queen mother of the West handed peaches from her orchard that conferred immortality to those who ate them. As the peach tree only fruited once every three thousand years, the peach is regarded as a symbol of longevity and a chief ingredient in the Daoist Elixir of Life. Odd-looking objects like this one and a similarly shaped object without the opening at the top but a tube in the base to fill it, called the cadogan, were probably ordered by Westerners as curiosity.
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