The cockerels are crowing with their wings folded, their tongues visible inside their open beaks, and their plumage depicted in incised detail, supported on a triangular rockwork base.
The cockerels are crowing with their wings folded, their tongues visible inside their open beaks, and their plumage depicted in incised detail, supported on a triangular rockwork base.
For an identical figure of a cockerel, see P.J. Donnelly, Blanc de Chine, Faber et Faber, 1969, planche 109 D.
For another pair, see S. Marchant, Exhibition of Blanc de Chine, 1985, p. 31, no. 58.
Similar figures are also in the collections of the Groningen Museum and the British Museum.
The model of cockerel is very likely based on a Japanese enameled cockerel figure of the beginning of the 18th century. See `The Burghley Porcelains, An Exhibition from The Burghley House Collection and Based on the 1688 Inventory and 1690 Devonshire Schedule` (Japan Society, New York, 1986) p. 222/223, no. 90.
Four “white cocks” are listed in a sale of 1706 of goods from the ship Tavistock (Geoffrey A. Golden, Oriental Export Market Porcelain, 1979, p. 277).
The rooster symbolizes good fortune in China. During the first half of the eighteenth century, it was depicted more than any other bird on Chinese Export Porcelain. Its name (ji) is a homophone for “prosperity” and it represents the five virtues: civil virtue (wen), illustrated by its crest that evokes the mandarin headdress; military virtue (wu), denoted by its spurs; bravery (yong), reflected in its combative spirit; humanity (ren), as it shares with its peers and calls upon them when it finds food; and finally, constancy (xin), represented by its morning call.
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