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Descriptif du lot
In Celebration of Duanwujie
Rosemary Scott
Independent Scholar
This very rare dish demonstrates the remarkable technical and artistic skills of ceramicists at the imperial kilns in the Qianlong reign, as well as elucidating traditional beliefs in regard to one of China’s major annual festivals. The vessel was made to form part of the festivities which take place on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, known as Duanwujie 端午節 or Duanwu Festival. This particular day has two distinct aspects. On the one hand, dragon boat races are held, and the dragon as the bringer of rain is honoured, along with the famous Warring States poet and statesman Qu Yuan 屈原 (c. 340 BCE – 278 BCE), who, having been cruelly slandered, eventually drowned himself in the Miluo River in protest against court corruption. However, it is the other aspect of the day that forms the focus of the decoration on the current dish. The fifth day of the fifth lunar month was regarded as the most pernicious day of the year. The decoration in the yellow-ground central panel of this dish, therefore, depicts creatures and plants which were believed to counter poisons and repel evil.
The red blossoms, exquisitely painted in overglaze iron red enamel, are pomegranate flowers (shiliuhua 石榴花), which bloom at this time of year, and whose brilliant scarlet colour was thought to ward off evil. The pomegranate sprays in the centre and on the right of the panel, are accompanied by sprigs of artemisia vulgaris, mugwort (aicao 艾草). Mugwort is a herb used in medicine, and was believed to ward off evil and prolong life. On the current dish mugwort is also shown with acorus gramineus, sweet flag or calamus (changpu 菖蒲). Sweet flag, which grows near water, is prized for being resistant to insects. On the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, it was added to wine – along with realgar powder (an arsenic sulphide, xionghuang 雄黄), because of the belief that it could repel noxious creatures. While by no means certain, it seems possible that the geometric red and black shapes seen with the mugwort and sweet flag sprays top and bottom of the central panel may be intended to represent realgar. Otherwise, they may be intended to suggest the small packets of powdered herbs and spices (xiangbao 香包) which were worn during Duanwujie to ward off disease.
As sweet flag is shaped like a sword it was associated with the sword with which the legendary hero Zhong Kui 鐘馗 was believed to cut through evil. Because of their shape, mugwort leaves were sometimes made into the shape of tigers (aihu 艾虎), which could be attached to doors as protection. However, mugwort leaves could also be tied so that they resembled fingers and, in particular, they could be tied around the sword-shaped sweet flag leaves as though a hand was holding a sword. This combination was created to ward off evil and repel poisonous insects. The fauna depicted in the central panel are the wudu 五毒 ‘five poisonous creatures’: snake, centipede, scorpion, toad and lizard. Their inclusion reflects the idea that the poisons from these creatures would counteract those associated with this pernicious day - fighting poison with poison. In some other depictions of this decorative theme, the lizard is replaced by a spider.
The floral scrolls and the minute background scrolls applied to the cavetto and rim of the dish are of the exceptionally fine quality that can be seen on a limited number of imperial Qianlong porcelains, several of which can be dated to the 1740s through research into the Archives of the Imperial Workshop (see research by Liao Pow Show 廖寶秀 published in Stunning Decorative Porcelains from the Ch’ien-lung Reign, Taipei, 2008). These, and indeed the current dish, were probably made under the supervision of the famous Tang Ying (唐英 1682-1756). The deep ruby enamel on the rim of the current dish has been incised before firing with a featherlike scroll similar to that on a teapot, dated to 1741 in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue Stunning Decorative Porcelains from the Ch’ien-lung Reign, op. cit., pp. 50-1, no. 4). The Taipei teapot also bears an elegant multicoloured floral scroll, which is a larger version of the one on the rim of the current dish. The cavetto of the dish is also decorated with a small-scale scroll, but this one is a knobbed scroll, finely painted in bluish green against a white ground.
While all the enamel painting is of the highest quality, it is another feature of the cavetto which is even more extraordinary. The well of the dish is pierced with a ring of large, circular holes, which are joined with gold-painted links – as if to form a chain. A small number of reticulated enamelled porcelains were made at the imperial kilns in the Yongzheng reign – such as the circular box with pierced lid in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing (see Porcelains with Cloisonne Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, vol. 39, Hong Kong, 1999, pp. 90-1, no. 79). Reticulation is seen on a somewhat larger number of fine, enamelled imperial Qianlong porcelains; most frequently on vases – such as revolving vases like the example in the National Palace Museum (see Stunning Decorative Porcelains from the Ch’ien-lung Reign, op. cit., pp. 216-7, no. 77), and items such as hat stands, like that with dragon decoration in the National Palace Museum ( see Stunning Decorative Porcelains from the Ch’ien-lung Reign, op. cit., pp. 212-3, no. 75). However, the use of reticulation in the cavetto of a dish, especially piercing with such large holes - removing approximately fifty percent of the body material - is extremely rare. Given that the cavetto has a vertically, as well as horizontally curved surface, and that it supports quite a wide, solid rim, such a shape would have been very prone to collapse during firing. It is not, therefore, surprising that dishes of this type are very rare indeed.
Prior to entering the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, the current dish had previously been included in two prestigious private collections - that of Alfred E. Hippisley and that of Henry C. Schwab. Alfred Hippisley (1848-1939) was an English collector, who married an American, Cornelia Howard, daughter of Captain Charles Ridgely Howard (of Waverley, Howard County, Maryland). They married in Beijing in 1885. As a young man, in 1867, Hippisley had joined the Imperial Chinese Maritime Customs Service, and rose to become Assistant Delegate to the Treaty and Tariff Commission. He appears to have been a keen collector of Chinese art, particularly ceramics. In 1887 Hippisley placed in the American National Museum what has been described as a ‘large and important collection of Chinese Porcelain’. Alfred Hippisley was also the author of a catalogue of this collection entitled A Sketch of the History of Ceramic Art in China, with a Catalogue of the Hippisley Collection of Chinese Porcelain, published by the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. in 1902. On the cover of this publication, Hippisley is described as ‘Commissioner of the Imperial Maritime Customs Service of China’. Sales of Qing porcelains from Hippisley’s collection were held at the Anderson Galleries in New York in 1925, while both ceramics and other works of art from the collection were sold at Sotheby’s London in 1935. Several items from Hippisley’s collection were purchased by the famous British collector Sir Percival David (1892-1964).
Henry Charles Schwab (1867-1941) was a Chicago-born American businessman and generous philanthropist. Having attended Yale University, he held executive positions at Rothschild & Co., as well as with Selz, Schwab & Co. He was a keen collector of East Asian art, with particular emphasis on the porcelains of 17th and 18th century China. On his death in 1941, he bequeathed his collection of Chinese art to the Art Institute of Chicago, and his collection of Japanese art to the Field Museum. The Chinese ceramics bequeathed to the Art Institute numbered some three hundred items, a selection of which were proudly displayed near to the Institute’s front entrance shortly after receipt of this substantial gift.
Rosemary Scott
Independent Scholar
This very rare dish demonstrates the remarkable technical and artistic skills of ceramicists at the imperial kilns in the Qianlong reign, as well as elucidating traditional beliefs in regard to one of China’s major annual festivals. The vessel was made to form part of the festivities which take place on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, known as Duanwujie 端午節 or Duanwu Festival. This particular day has two distinct aspects. On the one hand, dragon boat races are held, and the dragon as the bringer of rain is honoured, along with the famous Warring States poet and statesman Qu Yuan 屈原 (c. 340 BCE – 278 BCE), who, having been cruelly slandered, eventually drowned himself in the Miluo River in protest against court corruption. However, it is the other aspect of the day that forms the focus of the decoration on the current dish. The fifth day of the fifth lunar month was regarded as the most pernicious day of the year. The decoration in the yellow-ground central panel of this dish, therefore, depicts creatures and plants which were believed to counter poisons and repel evil.
The red blossoms, exquisitely painted in overglaze iron red enamel, are pomegranate flowers (shiliuhua 石榴花), which bloom at this time of year, and whose brilliant scarlet colour was thought to ward off evil. The pomegranate sprays in the centre and on the right of the panel, are accompanied by sprigs of artemisia vulgaris, mugwort (aicao 艾草). Mugwort is a herb used in medicine, and was believed to ward off evil and prolong life. On the current dish mugwort is also shown with acorus gramineus, sweet flag or calamus (changpu 菖蒲). Sweet flag, which grows near water, is prized for being resistant to insects. On the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, it was added to wine – along with realgar powder (an arsenic sulphide, xionghuang 雄黄), because of the belief that it could repel noxious creatures. While by no means certain, it seems possible that the geometric red and black shapes seen with the mugwort and sweet flag sprays top and bottom of the central panel may be intended to represent realgar. Otherwise, they may be intended to suggest the small packets of powdered herbs and spices (xiangbao 香包) which were worn during Duanwujie to ward off disease.
As sweet flag is shaped like a sword it was associated with the sword with which the legendary hero Zhong Kui 鐘馗 was believed to cut through evil. Because of their shape, mugwort leaves were sometimes made into the shape of tigers (aihu 艾虎), which could be attached to doors as protection. However, mugwort leaves could also be tied so that they resembled fingers and, in particular, they could be tied around the sword-shaped sweet flag leaves as though a hand was holding a sword. This combination was created to ward off evil and repel poisonous insects. The fauna depicted in the central panel are the wudu 五毒 ‘five poisonous creatures’: snake, centipede, scorpion, toad and lizard. Their inclusion reflects the idea that the poisons from these creatures would counteract those associated with this pernicious day - fighting poison with poison. In some other depictions of this decorative theme, the lizard is replaced by a spider.
The floral scrolls and the minute background scrolls applied to the cavetto and rim of the dish are of the exceptionally fine quality that can be seen on a limited number of imperial Qianlong porcelains, several of which can be dated to the 1740s through research into the Archives of the Imperial Workshop (see research by Liao Pow Show 廖寶秀 published in Stunning Decorative Porcelains from the Ch’ien-lung Reign, Taipei, 2008). These, and indeed the current dish, were probably made under the supervision of the famous Tang Ying (唐英 1682-1756). The deep ruby enamel on the rim of the current dish has been incised before firing with a featherlike scroll similar to that on a teapot, dated to 1741 in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue Stunning Decorative Porcelains from the Ch’ien-lung Reign, op. cit., pp. 50-1, no. 4). The Taipei teapot also bears an elegant multicoloured floral scroll, which is a larger version of the one on the rim of the current dish. The cavetto of the dish is also decorated with a small-scale scroll, but this one is a knobbed scroll, finely painted in bluish green against a white ground.
While all the enamel painting is of the highest quality, it is another feature of the cavetto which is even more extraordinary. The well of the dish is pierced with a ring of large, circular holes, which are joined with gold-painted links – as if to form a chain. A small number of reticulated enamelled porcelains were made at the imperial kilns in the Yongzheng reign – such as the circular box with pierced lid in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing (see Porcelains with Cloisonne Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, vol. 39, Hong Kong, 1999, pp. 90-1, no. 79). Reticulation is seen on a somewhat larger number of fine, enamelled imperial Qianlong porcelains; most frequently on vases – such as revolving vases like the example in the National Palace Museum (see Stunning Decorative Porcelains from the Ch’ien-lung Reign, op. cit., pp. 216-7, no. 77), and items such as hat stands, like that with dragon decoration in the National Palace Museum ( see Stunning Decorative Porcelains from the Ch’ien-lung Reign, op. cit., pp. 212-3, no. 75). However, the use of reticulation in the cavetto of a dish, especially piercing with such large holes - removing approximately fifty percent of the body material - is extremely rare. Given that the cavetto has a vertically, as well as horizontally curved surface, and that it supports quite a wide, solid rim, such a shape would have been very prone to collapse during firing. It is not, therefore, surprising that dishes of this type are very rare indeed.
Prior to entering the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, the current dish had previously been included in two prestigious private collections - that of Alfred E. Hippisley and that of Henry C. Schwab. Alfred Hippisley (1848-1939) was an English collector, who married an American, Cornelia Howard, daughter of Captain Charles Ridgely Howard (of Waverley, Howard County, Maryland). They married in Beijing in 1885. As a young man, in 1867, Hippisley had joined the Imperial Chinese Maritime Customs Service, and rose to become Assistant Delegate to the Treaty and Tariff Commission. He appears to have been a keen collector of Chinese art, particularly ceramics. In 1887 Hippisley placed in the American National Museum what has been described as a ‘large and important collection of Chinese Porcelain’. Alfred Hippisley was also the author of a catalogue of this collection entitled A Sketch of the History of Ceramic Art in China, with a Catalogue of the Hippisley Collection of Chinese Porcelain, published by the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. in 1902. On the cover of this publication, Hippisley is described as ‘Commissioner of the Imperial Maritime Customs Service of China’. Sales of Qing porcelains from Hippisley’s collection were held at the Anderson Galleries in New York in 1925, while both ceramics and other works of art from the collection were sold at Sotheby’s London in 1935. Several items from Hippisley’s collection were purchased by the famous British collector Sir Percival David (1892-1964).
Henry Charles Schwab (1867-1941) was a Chicago-born American businessman and generous philanthropist. Having attended Yale University, he held executive positions at Rothschild & Co., as well as with Selz, Schwab & Co. He was a keen collector of East Asian art, with particular emphasis on the porcelains of 17th and 18th century China. On his death in 1941, he bequeathed his collection of Chinese art to the Art Institute of Chicago, and his collection of Japanese art to the Field Museum. The Chinese ceramics bequeathed to the Art Institute numbered some three hundred items, a selection of which were proudly displayed near to the Institute’s front entrance shortly after receipt of this substantial gift.