Jakabffy Imre szerk.: Az Iparművészeti Múzeum Évkönyvei 13. (Budapest, 1971)

HOPP FERENC MÚZEUM - MUSÉE FERENC HOPP - Horváth, Tibor: Report on the Activities of the Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts in 1969 and 1970

Fig. 7. China. Figures of parrots, two pairs, porcelain. Made in the eighteenth century. Purchase. Inventory numbers: 69.49—52. Heighl of ihe firsl pair: 32.3 cm. Height of ihe second pair: 38.,') cm. The firsl pair of parrots with dark green glaze stand on rock. Un their long bodies there is not any ornament, only sharp edges along the wings. They have a round head with a strong beak painted in purple. The upper part of the beak covers the lower with a hole between them. The pupils are painted in black. Their painted claws cling to a pierced rock. One of them slightly turns to the right and the other to the left. They are both set in brass holders made in the nineteenth century in Europe. The second pair of parrots are larger in form, with a blue crackled glaze. The crackle is not well marked. Their claws converge with a pierced rock'. The heads and the bodies are formed in the same way as the first pair, with smooth, even surface and sharp edges along the wings. Here and there the glaze is worn off and became yellowish. Already in Shan-hai-ehing the bird named ying-wu was mentioned with green feathers, a red beak and it could speak like men. The modelling of birds began at an early age in China. However the significance of the bird deities varied at different periods. The bird figures incised on ancient bronzes are connected with the ancestral spirits, while jade taliznians are characteristic of protection, and the bird images of Chou dynasty suggest guardian household. Among the numerous divine birds which can be identified is also parrot. From the K'ang-hsi period onwards people used to put parrot figures in polychrome porcelain at home as decorations. According to the traditions the parrot is the favourite bird of Kuan-yin. A legend is also known in Kiangsi of a merchant on the verge of bankruptcy as the result of his wife's intrigues who escaped from it by a parrot's garrulity. Later on the parrot became the symbol of woman fidelity, warning women to be faithul to their husbands. L. K.