![Jar An ovoid-shaped Chinese Ming period porcelain jar painted in rich blue around the sides with two five-clawed dragons among clouds and with rocks and waves below. Round the shoulder a stylised shou (long life character) seems to grow out of the lotus scrol](https://cmsadmin.rct.uk/sites/default/files/365513-1361871614.jpg)
East Meets West
Extraordinary Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Royal Collection
Boulder with wood stand
eighteenth centuryRCIN 35399
Queen Victoria (1819–1901) received several important Chinese works of art as gifts for her Golden and Diamond Jubilees in 1887 and 1897. On both occasions, the Guangxu Emperor and the Empress Dowager Cixi presented her with jade objects of remarkable quality. Among them was this 'block of white jade' carved as a mountain, 'symbolic of long life, stability and unchangeableness' – a theme appropriate for the occasion of a Jubilee.