Silver hairpin with eleven projections decorated with jasmine blossoms, osmanthus flowers and a bat. A bat and jasmine flowers is a pun ‘May the welcoming spring flowers bring you blessings‘ (yingchun jiangfu). A bat represents Blessings and the winter jasmine is called ‘yingchunhua’. Osmanthus flowers express a wish for Distinguished sons. The number eleven is a Taoist symbol symbolizing ‘the way’ (the Tao) of the sky and the earth. It is the addition of the union of the sky, six, and the earth, five. The hairpin dates from the late Qing (1644 – 1912) to the early Republic period (1912 – 1947). Length 10.7 cm. Width 8.0 cm.