Dish depicting Ma Gu and a European coat of arms, anonymous, c. 1750 - c. 1774
Would the European commissioner of this dish have understood this wish of good fortune? The woman is the immortal Ma Gu, the goddess of longevity. Dressed in a deerskin, she holds a vase upside down. The yellow gourd on her belt contains wine from lingzhi, the mushroom of immortality. Her characteristic long, birdlike fingernails are not depicted here.