‘Fu Gui Bai Tou 富贵白头’ is interchangeable with ‘Bai Tou Fu Gui 白头富贵’, with the same meaning of ‘May you enjoy wealth and high position to a ripe old age’.

Pun Design:

Peony + Chinese bulbul

Punning Details：

– ‘fu gui 富贵’ in ‘fu gui hua 富贵花 peony’ literally, the ‘flower of wealth and prestige’, which is a nickname of ‘mu dan 牡丹 peony’;

– ‘bai tou 白头 white-headed’, of ‘bai tou weng 白头翁 Chinese bulbul’ (the white-headed-old-chap bird) can imply a ripe old age;

Therefore, the motif combination of peony and Chinese bulbul expresses the auspicious wish to the recipient to enjoy wealth and prestige to a ripe old age.

画面要素: 牡丹 + 白头翁

谐音详情: 牡丹别名‘富贵花’, 取‘富贵花’中‘富贵’二字; ‘白头翁’中‘白头’, 意为‘年长, 长寿’

Related Pun Pictures:

May you both live together to a ripe old age in married bliss 白头偕老

May your wealth and privilege expectable 富贵有期

Further Reading:

Appreciation of a top-tier Qianlong falangcai vase with red-whiskered bulbul decoration

• Fig 1: famille rose porcelain dish, c.1730–1780, Qing dynasty, courtesy of Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, Accession no. EAX.1524

  Fig 2: a pair of famille rose jars, Daoguang period (1821–50), Qing dynasty, courtesy of former Bouza Serrano Collection, Museum of the Orient, Lisbon, Portugal

  Fig 3-4: famille rose porcelain planter, 19 century, courtesy of the National Palace Museum, Taipei

  Fig 5: famille rose porcelain planter, 19 century, courtesy of the National Palace Museum, Taipei

  Fig 6: famille rose porcelain planter, 19 century, courtesy of the National Palace Museum, Taipei

  Fig 7: famille rose porcelain bowl with lid, late Qing dynasty, courtesy of Nordic Antiques, Sweden, No. 1912