Focus on this artwork and explain the Description.
The six-character reign mark on the bottom of this vase ("Da Qing Qianlong nian zhi") indicates that it was made under imperial patronage. The excellent quality and large size would have made it very suitable for display in the imperial palace. The design of peach buds, blossoms, leaves and fruits appears naturalistic, but that configuration would never appear in nature. Rather, it is a sort of rebus, as is common in Chinese decorations. Peaches symbolize immortality (thanks to the goddess Xiwangmu and her peach tree that only bore fruit every three millennia) and "nine" and "a long time" are homophones, so this design represents longevity and timelessness. The artist handled the theme very skillfully, using the complex shape of the vase to make the peaches most prominent by placing them on the vase's shoulder.
Peach peach Xiwangmu homophone