Comprising a teapot and cover, coffee pot and cover, sugar pot and cover and jug, all decorated with a border of stippled ground with details in repoussé of a chrysanthemum flower, the reverse with three cavorting hares beneath a crescent moon, spouts, handles and finials naturalistically modelled as nodular stems, the coffee pot inscribed and dated April 20th, 1935, shang and qing fuxing heji marks to base, Provenance: English private collection. The hare, a symbol of longevity, in China, is often depicted holding a sprig of lingzhi fungus. It is often thought the hare particularly likes to frolic under a full moon and during the Han Dynasty was thought to live on the moon. Daoist tradition seeing it mixing the elixir of life on that watery orb.