LATE 19TH CENTURY, TIHE DIAN ZHI SEAL MARKS IN IRON-RED TO THE BASES

For much of her tenure as Regent to her son, the Tongzhi Emperor, the Empress Dowager Cixi lived in the Tihe Dian (Hall of Manifest Harmony), which was was one of the six palaces in the northwestern sector of the Forbidden City. In R. Longsdorf, 'Dayazhai Ware: Empress Dowager Porcelain', Orientations, March 1992, p. 56, the author writes that such porcelains were produced from the Tongzhi or early Guangxu periods under her supervision. The combination of narcissus (shuixian), nandina (tianzhu), and lingzhi fungus form the auspicious rebus 'zhixian zhushou', which can be interpreted as a wish for the Heavenly Immortal to give the receiver with birthday blessings.