Page 20 - Nov 29 2017 HK Important Chinese Ceramics

A RARE IMPERIAL YELLOW NINE-DRAGON CUP

Rosemary Scott, Senior International Academic Consultant Asian Art

This extremely rare cup is the epitome of refined imperial Qing porcelain. The clear, warm yellow, known as ‘imperial yellow’ was coloured using about
It was created for a sovereign who was perhaps the most demanding of all 3.5% dissolved ferric oxide (Fe 2O 3) in a lead silicate base glaze. Strictly
the Qing emperors, the Yongzheng Emperor, and was probably made for speaking this glaze is an enamel when use on porcelain, since it cannot be
his personal use. Not only is it glazed inside and out with a fine imperial fired to porcelain temperature and therefore has to be applied to an already-
yellow glaze, but it is decorated with a delicately incised design of nine five- fired porcelain body, or an already-fired porcelain glaze, and re-fired at a
clawed dragons. Qing dynasty regulations stipulated that only the Emperor, lower temperature. Applying the yellow glaze directly onto the pre-fired
the Empress or the Empress Dowager could use vessels which had this porcelain body tended to produce a warmer colour, while if the yellow was
yellow glaze on the interior and exterior. An Imperial Noble Consort ( 皇 applied on top of a colourless high-fired porcelain glaze, it tended to have
貴妃 huang guifei – the rank just below Empress) could use vessels which a slightly fluid appearance, and even coloration. If the vessel had incised or
were yellow on the exterior, but were white on the interior, and those of carved decoration, the yellow was usually applied directly to the pre-fired
lesser status were required to use vessels in other combinations of colours body, since this allowed the yellow glaze to run into the incised or carved
appropriate to their rank. lines and accentuate the design.
The design of nine five-clawed dragons is also significant. The five-clawed The clarity of this imperial yellow allows the fine white body of the
dragon was the symbol of the emperor. Indeed, according to Chinese Yongzheng porcelain to show through. As Nigel Wood has noted: ‘The
mythology, when the legendary Yellow Emperor ( 黃帝 Huang Di, believed white porcelain body or glaze beneath the enamel enhanced the luminosity
to have reigned 2698–2598 BC) died he transformed into a dragon and of this transparent colour’ (Nigel Wood, Chinese Glazes, London and
in that form ascended to Heaven. It is thought that this legend is in part Philadelphia, 1999, p. 165). One of the features which distinguishes the
responsible for the association of the dragon with imperial power and the imperial yellow from other iron-coloured glazes and enamels, is the fact
symbolism of the dragon throne. Dragons have decorated emperors’ robes that it appears to contain more silica and alumina, allowing it to be fired at
since the Zhou dynasty (c. 1046 BC–256 BC). The fact of there being nine a somewhat higher temperature of about 1000 C. Indeed, some modern
o
such dragons on this cup is important since nine was regarded as the ‘imperial scientists have suggested that the finest yellow glazes were deliberately
number’, being the largest single digit number. Not surprisingly the number formulated to be fired at a slightly higher temperature than the other yellow
nine is also closely linked with dragons in Chinese mythology. The physical glazes in order to achieve greater clarity and a better colour
properties of the dragon are usually described in terms of nine attributes.
For example, a dragon is believed to have 81 yang scales (9 x 9) and 36 yin In his famous 1735 Commemorative Stele on Ceramic Production ( 陶
scales (9 x 4), making a total of 117 scales (9 x 13). There are also supposed 成紀事碑記 Taocheng jishi bei ji), written in the last year of the Yongzheng
to be nine different forms of the dragon, and the dragon also has nine sons. reign, Tang Ying ( 唐英 1682-1756) summarizes the regulations governing
In the Qing dynasty the so-called ‘dragon robe’ worn by the emperor was the Imperial porcelain Factory and also lists some fifty-seven different
embroidered with nine dragons – one at the front, and one the back, one on types of products. It is significant that this list includes almost forty types
each shoulder, two at the front at knee level, two at the back at knee level, of monochrome glaze. Two yellow glazes are mentioned in the list. One
and a ninth dragon ‘hidden’ on the interior of the chest section. is described as ‘reproduction yellow glazed vessels, plain and with incised
designs’ 仿澆黃釉器皿 : 有素地，錐花二種 , and the other is described
Rich yellow glazes first became established on porcelain vessels in the early as ‘vessels with yellow in European style’ 西洋黃色器皿 . It may safely be
Ming, but surviving examples are rare. The production of yellow-glazed assumed that the former referred to imperial yellow coloured with iron,
vessels, was undoubtedly influenced by the fact that in the second year of while the latter referred to the new lemon yellow, which included antimony.
his reign (1369) the first Ming dynasty emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang 朱元璋 ,
issued an edict declaring that the vessels used on the imperial altars should The Yongzheng Emperor’s admiration for yellow cups decorated with incised
henceforth be made of porcelain. While this move was undoubtedly driven dragons seems to be confirmed by an event recorded in the Comprehensive
by the need to conserve the copper, which would otherwise have been Records of Zaobanchu Workshops, which states that on the fifteenth day of
used in the manufacture of ritual bronze vessels, its effect on the porcelains eighth month of the tenth year of the Yongzheng reign (AD 1732), a ‘yellow
made for the Ming and Qing courts was, of course, significant. The colours tea cup with hidden dragons’ was removed from the Imperial Household,
required for the porcelains used on imperial altars at which the emperors and a decree was issued to Nian Xiyao ( 年希堯 (1671-1738) Supervisor
personally made sacrifices became codified. These altars were the Altar of the of the Imperial Kilns at Jingdezhen) to fire some ‘unmarked white-glazed
Sun, which came to be served with red porcelain vessels; the Altar of Heaven, pieces’ in the style of this cup. Two days later, the yellow dragon tea cup was
for which blue vessels were required; the Altar of the Moon, for which delivered to Zheng Tianxi 鄭天錫 , a member of Nian Xiyao’s family.
bluish-white porcelain vessels were made, and the Altar of Earth, which
required yellow porcelain vessels. However, it is only from the Xuande reign 據《清檔》記載：「八月十五日據圓明園來帖內稱本日司庫常保、
onwards that any significant numbers of yellow porcelains have survived. 首領薩木哈持來黃地暗龍茶圓一件。說宮殿監副侍李英傳旨，著照
此茶圓的樣式，交年希堯將填白釉的燒些來，底下不必落款 。欽此
The particular ‘imperial’ yellow glaze on the current cup, which owes its 。」「於八月十七日，將黃地暗龍茶圓一件並上諭一道，司庫常保
colour to small amounts of iron oxide, is sometimes called jiyouhuang 鷄油 交內務府總管年希堯家人鄭天錫持去，訖 。」
黃 , ‘chicken-fat-yellow’, in China. One of the other Chinese names for this
yellow glaze is jiao huang, which can be written using two different Chinese It was rare that precious and fragile items from the palace were sent hundreds
characters for jiao. One ( 嬌 ) means ‘elegant’, but the other ( 澆 ) means of miles to Jingdezhen to be copied, and suggests that the emperor wanted to
‘poured’. This latter name provides a clue to the way in which the yellow ensure that the exact details would be replicated. The current yellow, nine-
glaze was applied to the vessel, suggesting that it was poured onto the vessel. dragon cup, which could well have been the one so prized by the Yongzheng
The latter method would have been unusual, since the majority of such emperor that he wished to have it copied, is certainly a beautiful and very
glazes were applied by dipping the porcelain into a vat of glaze slurry. rare example of Yongzheng imperial porcelain.

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