Disk-shaped table screen

1644 - 1912

This jade tabletop decorative screen is carved with a wedding motif of two pairs of magpies among blossoming plum branches. The word for “magpie” in Chinese is pronounced the same as the word for “happiness,” so two magpies represent “double happiness.”

Nephrite

2 5/8 x 2 5/8 x 1/4 in. (6.67 x 6.67 x 0.64 cm)

Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection

33.1267

Provenance: {Probably purchased by Dr. Richard Fuller, Seattle, Washington, while in Hong Kong, Dec. 1919}; to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1933

Photo: Elizabeth Mann

Now on view at the Asian Art Museum

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Chinese Art: A Seattle Perspective, Dec. 22, 2007 - July 26, 2009.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Boundless: Stories of Asian Art, Feb. 8, 2020 - ongoing.

Published ReferencesYiu, Josh. A Fuller View of China: Chinese Art in the Seattle Art Museum, in association with A Fuller View of China, Japan, and Korea. Seattle, Washington: Seattle Art Museum, in association with University of Washington Press, 2014; pp. 28, 30, reproduced fig. 9.

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

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