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Description: | The beasts on this Chinese-style lid are presumably meant to represent a dragon and a phoenix. Both creatures had symbolic significance in Chinese culture. They are the principal motifs for decorative designs on the buildings, clothing and articles of daily use in the imperial palace. The names in the Chinese language for nearly all the things connected with the emperor or the empress were preceded by the epithet "dragon" or "phoenix"; "dragon seat" for the throne, "dragon robe" for the emperor's ceremonial dress, "dragon bed" for him to sleep on, and "phoenix carriage", "phoenix canopies" and so on for the imperial processions. However the designer of this tin has produced a very strange dragon - it has no tail or wings. What could it be? It has the tail of a manticore, but apart from that it seems to belong to a previously undiscovered genus! | Format: | image/jpeg | License: | http://www.sopse.org.uk/ixbin/hixclient.exe?a=query&p=gateway&f=generic_sitetext%2ehtm&_IXFIRST_=1&_IXMAXHITS_=1&cms_con_core_subtype%3acms_con_text_what=copyright&%3acms_sys_group=%22sopse%22 | Publisher: | Huntley & Palmers | Rights holder: | Reading Borough Council (Reading Museum Service) | Subjects: | bird natural science folklore and legend dragon phoenix flower animal | Temporal: | start=1954-01-01; end=1954-12-31; | Source: | Sense of place SE | Creator: | Huntley, Boorne & Stevens | Identifier: | http://www.sopse.org.uk/ixbin/hixclient.... | Language: | en-GB | Format: | image/jpeg | Go to resource |
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