Antique Lamps – Nyonya - The Phoenix and the Peony

Peranakan, Baba–Nyonya and Straits Chinese are all names used for the descendants of early Chinese traders, mostly from the Fukien province of China, who can trace their migration to the 14th century.

Southern Malaya, Malacca, Penang and Singapore Peranakan, all translate from Malay as descendant, Babas referring to male descendants and Nyonya to female descendants.

Historically, the Malay Peninsula was divided into small kingdoms, or Sultanates and it is to the kingdom of Malacca that we must look to find the origin of the Nyonya Chinese communities.Retracing our steps to the 15th century, we find ourselves in the Imperial court of the Ming dynasty's Yongle Emperor who appointed Zheng He to lead a vast navel fleet of 317 ships with a crew of 28.000!  Zheng was a monumental explorer, mariner, diplomat and admiral of the Chinese fleet and is still revered in modern China.

Between 1405 and 1433, admiral Zheng had led seven naval expeditions, visiting ports as far apart as Arabia, India, East Africa and ports through out South East Asia with the Imperial instructions to establish a Chinese presence across the region and establish trade links.

From official Chinese records, we know that in the year 1411, Parameswara, the King of Malacca and a retinue of 540 officials travelled to the Chinese Imperial court to pay homage to the Yongle Emperor. 

Malacca became a protectorate of the Emperor which saw the rapid development of the Malaccan kingdom, its geographical position ensuring its development into a major trade crossroad between China and India, the Middle East, Africa and Europe.  Malacca became an important trade port and soon evolved into a very rich state.

With the enormous volume of trade and traffic between China and the Malacca Straits, shifts in population became inevitable and many from the south of China became permanent citizens of Southern Malaya, however, the descendants of these 15th century Chinese immigrants, the Nyonya, have a much more romantic story of their origin.

According to traditional accounts, in 1459, the Emperor of China sent a Chinese princess, Hang Li Po, to marry the Sultan, Mansur Shah of Malacca, in recognition of their political relationship. tradition has it, that the princess was accompanied by an entourage of 500 servants, maids and officials and it is from this courtly retinue that the Nyonya communities descended.  

These conservative Chinese communities, now remote from China, were to evolve into a unique society over the ensuing centuries.  Known in Malay as Peranakan, meaning, descendants, they held fast to their ethnic and religious traditions, which was ancestor worship, but adopted the language and much of the culture of the Malays.

Historically, these Malay Straits kingdoms, so important to trade, were effectively occupied and colonised over a period of 400 years, first by the Portuguese, then the Dutch and finally, the British, who established the modern state of Singapore in 1819.

Throughout the period of British colonisation, the Nyonya communities did well, being favored by the British administration for their administrative skills and their loyalty to the British crown. The British administration advocated free trade, with all previous trade restrictions and heavy tariffs being lifted, resulting in the economies of the Malay Peninsula and Singapore surging! This change in policy provided unlimited trading opportunities for the Nyonya communities to prosper. 

This new wealth provided communities to add to their unique customs and traditions with some very specific tastes and styles.  Already established with a unique cuisine, costume, architecture, language, song and dance, but, paramount amongst these is the famous Nyonya porcelain, the earliest, being produced in the first years of the 19th century.    

Nyonya ware, Peranakan Chinese porcelain and Straits Chinese porcelain are all terms used to describe the distinctive, brightly coloured porcelains commissioned for the exclusive use of the Straits Chinese communities.

Nyonya porcelain is entirely different, with no reference to any other class of Chinese porcelain produced.  It is distinguished by a relatively small range of robust colours and a preference for a predominant decoration, the phoenix and the peony.   

The Nyonya porcelain lamp shown, illustrates this predominant decoration with its distinctive use of bright pink and green enamels, decorated with the traditional phoenix and peony flowers.

A 19th century, Chinese export, baluster shaped lamp, previously an altar vase and converted into a lamp, probably in the 1920's.  

The lamp boldly coloured, with a bright, pea green ground colour and decorated with branches of shaded, pink peony flowers, buds and foliage.    

The ground with two yellow framed ogival shaped reserves enamelled with a distinctive bright rose pink ground.  The reserved ground enamelled in polychrome enamels with a phœnix hovering above branches of shaded Peony flowers.

The neck of the lamp with applied Buddhist lions of Fo, the shoulder of the lamp with four applied dragons, all in vivid green and pink.  The base of the lamp enamelled with a band of bright yellow, formalised, rectangular lotus petals.

The lamp on a Chinese stand, lacquered in Chinese black, the lamp cap, custom made in gold plated bronze.

This is a very fine example of the unique 19th century Chinese porcelain specifically produced for the Malay Straits and Singaporean Chinese communities.

 Circa 1870        Overall height (including shade) 24"/61cm

 The Nyonya had held fast to their ethnic Chinese customs and maintained many Chinese traditions, such as celebrating the Lunar New Year and the Lantern Festival, plus, adopting many of the customs of the land in which they had settled. 

By the early 19th century the Nyonya Chinese merchants began the practice of commissioning large porcelain services to be made at the great ceramic centre of Jingdezhen in South Eastern China.

These custom orders were made for the exclusive use of the Straits Chinese communities, with their original bright colours, designs and original shapes.

These services were specifically reserved for important festive occasions, such as weddings, birthdays and anniversaries with the majority of the pieces decorated with the phœnix and the peony on the small range of vivid colours, pea green, rose pink and the less often found yellow and coral red.

In Chinese art, both formal and informal, the phœnix symbolises the Empress and by extension, female.  It also symbolises virtue, duty, alignment, compassion, and loyalty.

The peony, known as "The Queen of Flowers", symbolises summer, love and affection.  It also indicates a hope for greater advancement and is also a synonym for nobility and gracefulness. 

On the occasion of a wedding, it was the bride who was presented with a full service of Nyonya ware and it is considered that this decorative style was developed, being that the highly symbolic motifs are exclusively female. The phœnix was also sometimes depicted with a flaming pearl, symbolizing an auspicious bridal union.

Vase shapes were also produced to be placed on the family altar, not for flower arrangements as practiced in the West.  The Nyonya religious practice was Taoist and vases were considered as altar furniture, flowers only being placed in these vases for religious purposes. 

Since independence from Britain, the Straits Chinese, Nyonya ethnic group have largely assimilated into the mainstream Chinese community and as a result, the modern changes have led to the virtual disappearance of the distinctive Nyonya culture.  The porcelains made especially for this social group have only in recent years been recognised for their true value as links to this fast fading unique culture. Peranakan Chinese culture is today carried on by several cultural associations who maintain performing arts groups.

Interior lighting is an important aspect of our way of life and we have plenty of options to choose from.  Usually, it is our personalities that dictate the choices we make and the choice of lighting is no exception.

Antique lamps, however, are an exception to the rule, offering a wide range of lamps to all personality types. Elegant lamps to the classically interior minded, ethnic lamps to the eclectic interior minded and surprisingly, antique table lamps to the contemporary interior minded.  Lamps, antique and vintage are perfectly at home, even in the most modern interior, offering decorative and practical lighting solutions for all interior styles.        

These lamps can be seen on The Antique and Vintage Table Lamp Co's web site.

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