Page 72 - Reginald and Lena Palmer Collection EXHIBITION, Bonhams London Oct 25 to November 2 2021

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A FAMILLE ROSE TEAPOT AND COVER
Baohe dahe blue-enamel four-character seal mark, Qing Dynasty
15.7cm (6 1/8in) high.

清 粉彩花鳥紋長方蓋壺
藍料「保合大和」篆書橫款

Provenance:
Yamanaka & Co. Ltd., London
R.H.R Palmer (1898-1970), acquired from the above in March 1937,
Collection no.472

Published and Exhibited:
The Oriental Ceramic Society, Exhibition of Enamelled Polychrome
Porcelain of the Manchu Dynasty 1644-1912, London, 1951, no.181

來源：
倫敦古董商山中商會
R.H.R Palmer（1898-1970）於1937年3月購自上者，典藏編號472

展覽著錄：
倫敦東方陶瓷學會，《Exhibition of Enamelled Polychrome Porcelain
of the Manchu Dynasty 1644-1912》，倫敦，1951年，編號181

The flat rectangular surfaces of the teapot act as a perfect canvas The mark on the base of the teapot ‘保合大和’ (Baohe dahe),
for the paintings by Jiang Tingxi (蔣廷錫, 1669-1732). Jiang Tingxi, ‘Preserving the Great Harmony’, comes from a line in the ‘Book of
born in Changsha, Jiangsu Province, was a highly accomplished Changes’ (易經 Yijing): 保合大和。乃利貞。首出庶物。萬國咸寧,
painter, whilst also serving as a Grand Secretary at the Imperial which may be translated as: ‘Great harmony is preserved in union. The
Court, in the Office of Military Finance. He is also well known as an result is what is advantageous, and correct and firm. [The sage] appears
editor and illustrator of the 5020-volume encyclopaedia Gujin tushu aloft, high above all things, and the myriad states all enjoy repose’.
jicheng (古今圖書集成 ‘Complete Collection of Ancient and Modern
Writings and Charts’). See a very similar famille rose teapot and cover, with Baohe liuhe mark
and Jiang Tingxi seal mark, dated to circa 1730-1739, in the Bristol
Jiang Tingxi specialised in painting flowers and birds and the City Art Gallery, illustrated by S.Jenyns, Later Chinese Porcelain,
paintings on the present teapot may have been taken from his London, 1965, pl.LXXIII.
illustrations of flowers in the said encyclopaedia. Although the
calligraphic inscription states it was ‘Respectfully painted by Minister
Jiang Tingxi’ (臣蔣廷錫恭繪) this could be a respectful form of
attribution of the source of the design rather than meaning it was
done by the hand of Jiang Tingxi himself.

Despite the delicate beauty of the blossoms, one can see that many
of the leaves are decaying or are worm-eaten. The mark of a person of
feeling in the late Ming and Qing dynasties was a poignant awareness
of the transience of the phenomenal world, embodied alike in the
changing seasons and in the shifting fortunes of human life. This
crucial concept forms the locus where the stern Buddhist doctrine of
impermanence was softened by the aesthetics of deep responsiveness
to the world. Painting, long a key marker of a cultured person, drew
much of its power from this awareness, and both the painter and
viewer could feel that they were savouring an essential Buddhist truth
through a painting of flowers and decaying leaves that evoked or
remembered, ephemeral beauty. Image after S.Jenyns, Later Chinese
Porcelain, London, 1965, pl.LXXIII

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