I am looking for illustrations of Chinese porcelain decoration of 'wufu' or bats. On another site I came across a description describing the importance of bats in Chinese mysticism:
BAT - Emblem of happiness. Usually painted red, the colour of joy. The Wu Fu, or five bats of happiness, stand for the five blessings: old age, wealth, health, virtue and natural death.
Wufu decoration is apparently used extensively by the Chinese in decoration of all sorts, especially porcelain.
I would be most thankful if you could advise of a website or source that could provide some illustrative reference.
Here are two pictures of the best example of "wufu" = five happinesses decoration I have come across.
The dish is a Daoguang 1821 - 1850 Imperial mark and period dish.
Thank you for your interest.
Best regards,
Jan-Erik Nilsson