A pair of famille-rose 'Dayazhai' 'parrot and peach' rectangular jardinières, Qing dynasty, Guangxu period, circa 1876 | 清光緒 約1876年 粉彩壽桃鸚鵡圖長方花盆一對 《大雅齋》《天地一家春》款

Among the thirty-one drawings for Dayazhai wares commissioned from the Imperial Embroidery Workshop in 1874 is a design for a 'rectangular flowerpot of peach blossoms and fruits', where the notes specify that the blooming peach branches be laden with ripe fruit, together with a pair of parrots. Both the peach and parrot, with their long lifespan, were popular symbols of longevity. A drawing for the design is illustrated in Guanyang ciqi: Gugong bowuyuancang Qing dai zhici guanyang yu yuyao ciqi [Official Designs and Imperial Porcelain: Official Porcelain Designs and Imperial Qing Dynasty Porcelains in the Palace Museum], Beijing, 2007, pl. 31, where it is illustrated alongside a purple-ground jardinière and stand of the same design. Compare a single white-ground jardinière of the same design in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Ying-Chen Peng, Artful Subversion. Empress Dowager Cixi's Image Making, Yale, 2023, p. 82, fig. 55.