Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Lunar New Year of the Goat


I don't know why goats/rams/sheep/lamb are considered lucky by the Chinese  but this  belief  has been passed down through generations. There's a Chinese saying san yang kai tai or 3 goats start a fortune.  To ring in the Year of the Goat 2015 then,  I will show  some of  my goat collectibles especially in groups of three like the picture below.


san yang kai tai or 3 goats a fortune make.


Below are another 3 jade goat mascots of good luck for 2015. These 3 are pendants - the one on the left has the money or coin symbol on the reverse and must have been made to commemorate the goat year in a previous cycle.

Goat pendants
Reverse has double coins to double the luck for year of goat.


Next is an interesting goat bead. It is pierced through  the body and intended to be a dangle. This  serious looking goat also has a beard....so that's where the term goatee comes from :)
goatee comes from goat's beard !

Heng has contributed a  couple more goats/rams carved from serpentine from his collection.  Looks like a mother and child pair.
Ram or goat ?


2015 is the year of the Wooden Goat but as I have no wooden goats to show  I'll make do with a pair of vintage metal lambs which came from Hilltribes of Thailand.

bleat! bleat1

Rummaging among my collectibles looking for goats to display, I retrieved this long forgotten porcelain goat/sheep purportedly from Song dynasty (960-1279AD). Of yin qing glaze, it is large but roughly potted. Guess it could make nice mutton soup for Song folks :)
Can make a nice mutton soup!


Another quirky pair is this wool on rice paper picture of a nanny goat and a billy goat nibbling grass beneath cherry or prunus blossoms.   Using wool to make a picture of a goat is quite appropriate and I must say the goats wear their wool well. I am not sure whether its pure lamb's wool or even maybe silk threads imitating wool. I bought the picture at a garage sale more than thirty years ago. It was already framed and old at the time of purchase,  so I reckon the vintage to be at least 80 years. 


Nanny goat and billy goat.


Lastly here is  the handmade lamb's work that I stitched more than 20 years ago (see date 1988 on cross stich)


  
Little lamb who made thee?

To end on a cheerful note and add the obligatory CNY red , (so far missing from this post) is this greeting for the new year.
  
Wishing All Collectors Goat Luck for 2015
Tian Tian Xi Xi Yang Yang !


Tian tian xi xi yang yang


  


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Favourite Books

  • Theft : a love story
  • The Uncommon Reader
  • The Silent Patient
  • Never Let me go
  • Angela's Angels
  • Where angels fear to tread