Fu Plate

The character for good fortune fu is sculpted as a three-dimensional brush stroke against a repeating pattern of the ancient character for ‘ten thousand’ wan, signifying a long life. Bats, homonymous with fu, surround the display piece’s central motif.

Fu Lu Shou 福禄寿, or the Sanxing (三星 Three Stars), are gods of the three celestial bodies Jupiter, Mizar and Canopus, and the three characteristics of good fortune (Fu), status (Lu) and longevity (Shou) in Chinese folk beliefs. The term ‘fu lu shou’, and the display of the three figures, is common in Chinese society to indicate and attract these three attributes of a desirable life.

About the collection

The exoticism and lofty symbolism of oriental style, legacy of a millennia-old continuous civilisation, provides an opulent counterpoint to the restraint of contemporary aesthetics.