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AN IMPERIALLY INSCRIBED BLUE AND WHITE The Qianlong Emperor was a connoisseur of fine tea and
‘MOUNT HUI TEMPLE’ TEAPOT AND COVER is said to have composed over two hundred poems on the
SEAL MARK AND PERIOD OF QIANLONG subject of tea preparation and enjoyment. The present
teapot attests to the Emperor’s fondness for the beverage
the domed body rising to an elongated waisted neck and not only through its function, but also in the image on one
flared rim, set with an upright curved spout opposite an side of a gentleman being served tea in a pavilion, and in the
elegant loop handle, each side with a rectangular panel Emperor’s own poem on the opposite side titled Brewing tea
enclosed within scroll borders, one panel finely painted on the bamboo brazier at the Temple for Listening to Pines
with a scene of two gentlemen enjoying tea in a temple at Mount Hui inspired by the Ming verses and the paintings of
accompanied by an attendant near a brazier and a second Wang Fu, followed by the eight verses of the poem itself and
attendant offering a scroll to one of the gentlemen, amidst two seals bearing the Emperor’s name.
a walled garden with craggy rocks and two tall pine trees, The poem was penned in 1751 when the Emperor made a
the moon gate revealing the horizon beyond, further trees special visit to Mount Hui, Wuxi, Jiangsu province, during
peeking out from behind the garden confines, the other his first Southern Inspection Tour. The location attracted
panel inscribed in kaishu with an eight-verse poem titled him because the local spring was celebrated for its pure
Brewing tea on the bamboo brazier at the Temple for water that produced the finest quality tea, and because his
Listening to Pines at Mount Hui inspired by the Ming verses grandfather, the Kangxi Emperor, had also visited the site,
and the paintings of Wang Fu, composed by the Qianlong sipped tea brewed on the famed bamboo brazier, and gave
Emperor and ending with two mock seals reading Qian Long, his own poetry to be kept in a local pavilion. During his visit,
both panels reserved on a dense ground of stylized leafy the Qianlong Emperor read his grandfather’s poetry as well
arabesque scrolls interspersed with bats and flowers, the as the poetry and paintings of scholars who came before
cover similarly decorated, the base with a six-character seal him, who were also moved by Mount Hui’s spring and the
mark in underglaze blue (2) marvelous tea it produced.
Width 7 in., 17.8 cm
Mount Hui’s pure spring water was appreciated by scholars
PROVENANCE since the Tang dynasty (618-907), when it was recorded
in the Chajing [The Classic of Tea] by Lu Yu (733-804),
Sotheby’s New York, 18th September 1996, lot 209.
the highly respected ‘Sage of Tea,’ who ranked it second
$ 80,000-120,000 among all natural springs. Lu Yu also designed a metal
brazier veneered in bamboo, known in short as the ‘bamboo
brazier’ (zhulu), which was mentioned by the famous
清乾隆 青花御題詩烹茶圖闊底壺 contemporary poet, Du Fu (712-770), in a verse reading
《大清乾隆年製》款 ‘Simple and easy, the lofty man’s manner; a stove enclosed
御題詩文： in wooden bamboo...’ Thereafter, the bamboo-caned brazier
惠山聽鬆庵用竹爐煎茶因和明人題者韻即書王紱畫 became associated with high-mindedness and virtuosity,
a connotation that was perpetuated by literati of the
卷中 subsequent Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties.
纔酌中泠第一泉 惠山聊復事烹煎 In the Ming dynasty, Pu Zhen (zi, Xinghai) (fl. 1368-1402),
品題頓置休慚昔 歌詠膻薌亦賴前 the abbot at the Temple for Listening to Pines at Mount Hui,
開士幽居如虎跑 （音趵） 舍人文筆擬龍眠 commissioned a bamboo brazier to be made for the temple.
裝池更喜商丘犖 法寶僧庵慎棄全 The contemporary Wuxi painter and progenitor of the Wu
School, Wang Fu (1362-1416), contributed to the design of
印文： the brazier. The brazier itself became a celebrated artifact,
乾 隆 and it was regularly commemorated in poems and paintings.
Wang Fu himself painted a work in 1402 titled Brewing Tea
來源： on the Bamboo Brazier (Zhucha tu juan). This painting, along
紐約蘇富比1996年9月18日，編號209 with Wang Da’s (ca. 1368-1424) Preface to the Pure Songs to
the Bamboo Brazier and Record of the Bamboo Brazier (both
written in 1395), and poems by other contemporary literati
were all mounted on scrolls and kept together at the Temple
for Listening to Pines. Later scholars visiting the illustrious
temple contributed to the canon of works celebrating the
bamboo brazier and tea made from the spring’s water. The
scrolls containing these were compiled as the Compendium
of the Bamboo Brazier (Zhulu tuyong).

158 SOTHEBY’S COMPLETE CATALOGUING AVAILABLE AT SOTHEBYS.COM/N10748 IMPORTANT CHINESE ART FROM THE COLLECTION OF BRUCE DAYTON AND RUTH STRICKER DAYTON 159