Description:

The scene of two crabs amongst reeds is a complicated play on words. It means ‘two suits of armour [crabs] through the reeds’ (er jia chuan lu) which in Chinese can also mean ‘first place in the er jia (the second class of the court civil examination) of the highest level of the imperial examination’.

Glass, carved overlay
Height: 12.6 cm, diameter: 7.5 cm, neck diameter: 4.7 cm

Creator: Unknown

Date: 1800-1900, Qing dynasty

Copyright: Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives

Object ID:N4602