Page 60 - Reginald and Lena Palmer Collection EXHIBITION, Bonhams London Oct 25 to November 2 2021

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This exquisite design of magpies fluttering amidst flowering prunus Imperial kilns at Jingdezhen, famous for his innovations. Tang’s intimate
branches was popular during the reign of the Yongzheng Emperor. knowledge of the Palace Collection enabled him to appreciate ancient
The subject was probably inspired by Chinese ink and colour paintings masterpieces and commission new pieces of the quality with the
of the bird-and-flower genre that had provided inspiration to the vibrant palette of famille rose enamels. What resulted was a design
potters at the Imperial kilns from as early as the early fifteenth century. of somewhat greater complexity than the early 15th century version,
executed with refinement and artistry. The Yongzheng Emperor
The intimate subject of ‘bird and flower’ paintings became one of was infatuated with portents of good fortune. Having ascended
the most recognised painting genres in China in the Song dynasty the throne under somewhat nebulous circumstances, the legality
(969-1279). Created by Academy painters working for the Court, it of his succession was persistently questioned, which made him
was a favourite subject of the great Imperial connoisseur, collector particularly receptive to auspicious symbolism. A record of the Qing
and amateur painter, Zhao Ji, the Huizong Emperor (r.1101-25). Imperial Household Department, dated 1734, mentions a pair of large
The Northern Song painter Cui Bo (active circa 1060-1085) is often bowls made for the Emperor with the design of ‘Jie Jie Shuang Xi’,
credited for changing the direction of bird-and-flower paintings within ‘Constantly Ascending to Double Happiness’. This may refer to bowls
the Court Academy, making them more animated and freer in style; painted with two birds, likely magpies, homophones with ‘happiness’,
see ‘Magpies and Hare’, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and bamboo, a pun for ‘constant rising’ (jie jie gao sheng).
illustrated by Wen Fong and J.Watt, Possessing the Past, New York,
1996, pl.71. According to Margaret Medley, the prunus and magpies designs
noted on porcelains dated to the Yongzheng period, is more closely
The ‘bird and flower’ painting genre came into its own at the Imperial related to Chinese ink painting than any other porcelain motif, and she
kilns at Jingdezhen during the 15th century. This was in part inspired illustrates a related Song (960-1279) painting and a Ming (1368-1644)
by paintings of earlier artists, partly by the work of a number of woodblock print; see M.Medley, ‘Sources of Decoration in Chinese
successful contemporary court painters of birds and flowers, such Porcelain from 14th to 16th Century’, in Chinese Painting and the
as Bian Jingzhao, who built on the traditions of the past, and partly Decorative Style. Colloquies on Art and Archaeology in Asia, no.5,
by the increasing availability of illustrated woodblock printed books, London, 1975, p.63 and pls.IIIa and c.
including pharmaceutical literature dealing with plants and their
medicinal properties. Compare with a related famille rose dish, Yongzheng four-character
mark and of the period, decorated with flowering prunus branches,
By the beginning of the Yongzheng Emperor’s reign, the bird illustrated by R.Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang
and flower design was once again brought back to life under the Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol.4, no.1754.
directorship of Tang Ying (1682-1786), the Superintendent of the

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