Pair of Star Offering Fruits

This delightful pair of ceramic star fruit was made in Northern China over a hundred years ago as offerings. Traditionally, real fruits, depictions of fruit, buddhist figures and incense would have been placed on Chinese family altars as gifts of respect to ancestors. Star fruit has distinctive side ridges (usually five) and when cut into cross-sections, it resembles a star, hence its name. These sculptural star fruit depictions have a crackled glaze that is beautifully, and realistically layered: the yellow, greens, and browns blending to give the porcelain an organic, naturalistic appeal.