(52 prints or sets)

Foshan is well represented in the collection with prints marked "Junji", all reissued by the Foshan City Museum in the 90's, and prints produced for the "real market" by Hualong, Hongchang and Xiangxi printshops. Other shopmarks in the collection that can also be from Foshan are "Yitu? zhan", "Furong zhan", "Zhi Chang" and (if not from Hong Kong) "Xin Yuan Fa".

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The Foshan City Museum (1-4) never paints the orange backgrounds (di) typical of the commercially issued door prints of Foshan. Many of their prints have only one or two colours, usually the black one, printed with the original block(s), the rest being done by manual painting (3-4).

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Foshan produces all kinds of door gods, like this "Child bearing fairy and Heavenly mandarin" pair (5-6)

or Yan Gun and Zhao Kuangyin (7-8). These in particular have a "Hualong" mark, but prints from the same blocks exist with no mark at all. This kind of large size door gods is produced for the house

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or in smaller sizes for the stable or the pig stall (9), which is a peculiar feature of Foshan.

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This pair with a "Junji" mark is very similar to another one with a "Nanji" inscription described by Laing 2002, no. 15

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but very different from this other pair of small door gods for the stables, from the same printshop. Could "Junji" and "Nanji" be competitors in the bussiness?

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Prints displayed in the exhibition were "Guanyin carries the souls to Heaven" (14)

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and "The four directions" (15)

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as could have been also the case with this "Women and banana tree", also of very good quality,

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or this "Married woman visiting her family", early 20th century

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or this "Water margin" (Shuihu Zhuan) episode as well, from the Qing dynasty.

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Other less beautiful "zhima" are still locally produced with modest one-block technology either in red or in black.

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