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Bottle ID: 00247
YUANMING YUAN, BLUE, LOTUS & POEM
Date: 1770
Height: 55 mm
Glass, of rounded flattened form, the shoulders tapering to a slightly everted mouth, decorated in famille rose enamels on a cobalt-blue ground, on one side with a pair of lotus flowers, with a pod and leaves rising from murky water; the reverse with a four character inscription with a leaf 'seal' to its right, followed by a twelve character poem, and a five character inscription and a seal, all executed in iron-red enamel and reading:
"The fresh pure appeal of Putang".
"The breeze brings fragrant breath,
As distant rain passes
An azure light floats atop the water"
"Engraved at the time of the sixth month of the gengyin year" (1770)
Seal: Guyue
the base with a Guyue Xuan mark.
Imperial, attributed to the Palace Workshops, Yuanming Yuan.
Similar Examples:
Crane Collection no. 336.
Crane Collection no. 219
Moss, Hugh M. [ed.] Chinese Snuff Bottles: 6, from the Collection of the RT. Hon. The Marquess of Exeter, K.C.M.G., 1974, pp. 102-103, E. 12.
Hui, Humphrey K. F. and Christopher C. H. Sin. An Imperial Qing Tradition - Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Humphrey K. F. Hui and Christopher C. H. Sin, 1994, p. 142, no. 175.
Moss, Hugh, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang. The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle - The J & J Collection, 1993, Vol. I, p. 341, no. 199.
Provenance:
Clare Lawrence Ltd.
Christie's, New York, March 23, 1995, lot 177
Mrs. Galia Baylin, Hong Kong
Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc., October 3, 1980, lot 87
Exhibited:
Annual Convention ICSBS Toronto, October 2007
Published:
JICSBS, Winter 2008, p. 9, figs. 10a and 10b
JICSBS, Spring 2006, p. 18, fig. 7
A small number of Guyue Xuan marked bottles have poems enameled on one side. Although the Qianlong Emperor composed many poems which were added to works of art at his request, the first line of the poem on this bottle has been identified as being taken from "Lotuses" by the famous Tang poet, Li Jiao. The year after the Jian Yuan was completed in 1768 (where the Guyue Xuan was located), the Qianlong Emperor composed poems on four of the halls there. The Guyue Xuan was not included in his poems.
In 1771, a further poem was composed by him on the Jian Yuan (see Crane no. 168 for a further discussion of the Jian Yuan). In 1786, the Qianlong Emperor asked for the Gardens to be added to a panoramic painting of an overall view of the Changchun Yuan. The following two Emperors, Jiaqing and Daoguang, make no mention of the Jian Yuan in their writing, poems or in any orders they gave for the renovation of the Yuanming Yuan as a whole. This leads to the tentative conclusion that any Guyue Xuan marked enamel on glass bottles with poems, which bear other eighteenth century characteristics, could be dated from 1767 until Qianlong's death in 1799. Since the Jian Yuan was intended as Qianlong's retirement home, it was unlikely to have been occupied by either the Jiaqing Emperor or the Daoguang Emperor. Indeed the Daoguang Emperor had the Shende Tang built within the Yuanming Yuan in 1830 as his residence (see Crane no. 909 for a discussion of the Shende Tang).
The Yuanming Yuan had housed the glass workshop since the Yongzheng Emperor had established it during his reign. It is entirely likely, therefore, that it was this workshop which made items destined for the Guyue Xuan.
Fourteen dated pieces have been identified of this group; six of them to 1767 (five of which also include the Qianlong reign title - of which four are precisely dated to the sixth month). The date 1768 appears on three objects - one archer's ring and two snuff bottles, which are dated respectively to the sixth month and to autumn, once again both include the Qianlong reign title. Three bottles are dated 1769 - one to summer and two to the sixth month. The Crane bottle is the one recorded from 1770, dated to the sixth month of that year. After 1770, only one bottle has been recorded with a date of 1775.
Interestingly, all of these bottles are of a similar flattened form on a milk-white ground except for the Crane example and two others, one from each preceding year. Three other bottles of this group are marked around the neck as part of the circular border; one with Qianlong nianzhi in blue enamel; the second with the inscription "shang shang" meaning "highest award"; the third "keren ruyu" meaning "a most suitable man (is as) estimable as jade". The third bottle is one of the bottles dated to 1767. One further undated bottle is inscribed interestingly with "Zuoyu neiting" meaning "made at the Inner Court". This supports the notion that the Guyue Xuan marked bottles were made not at the Palace Workshops in the Forbidden City, but at the Yuanming Yuan, where the Guyue Xuan was located. This would also account for the different quality of enameling and the relatively small number of bottles made.
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