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fig. 1 fig. 2
Doucai ‘rose’ stem cup, mark and period of Chenghua Doucai ‘rose’ stem cup, mark and period of Chenghua
Qing court collection © Jingdezhen Ceramics Archaeology Institute
© Palace Museum, Beijing
retreats and accordingly housed a large number of works of art Porcelain Ware, 1465-1487, National Palace Museum, Taipei,
and antiques. After the end of the Qing dynasty, the abdicated 2003, probably cat. nos 128, 168, 186.
Emperor of China, Puyi (r. 1908-11), who continued to reside in
the former Imperial Palace, was alerted by his English teacher, However, many more pieces may have been involved, since
Reginald Johnston, that palace eunuchs were selling imperial not all pieces recovered from that palace fire were seriously
artefacts. Although he had repeatedly planned a review of affected by it. The present stem cup was probably among
the palace holdings, a disastrous fire occured before this was those pieces rescued from that palace fire and deaccessioned
undertaken, where a part of the palace burnt to the ground. from the imperial palace on account of this. This is suggested
It was suspected to have been set by palace staff in order to by the black-stained biscuit visible under the foot, which is
disguise the fact that artefacts were missing. The clearance of equally seen on the companion piece in the Palace Museum,
the ruins was entrusted to an outside company. Since the site Beijing; but on the present cup the enamels have survived the
had contained gold statues, the task was put out to tender, accident intact.
with the highest bid going to a gold shop. In addition to gold,
some porcelains were rescued, but apparently only the most For related Chenghua doucai stem cups of this shape, painted
valuable were deemed worthy of retaining inspite of their with lotus scrolls or lotus medallions, in the National Palace
damage. Museum, Taipei, see Chenghua ciqi tezhan, op.cit., cat. nos
171-176. A fire-damaged stem cup of the same shape with lotus
Besides some pieces of burnt Ru ware, only Chenghua doucai medallions between the same supporting motifs, from the Wu
pieces appear to have left the palace collection because of Lai Hsi, Carl Kempe and Meiyintang collections, illustrated in
this incident. Some fifteen Chenghua doucai vessels clearly Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection,
affected by fire are recorded outside China, mostly listed by London, 1994-2010, vol. 2, no. 676, was sold in these rooms,
Julian Thompson, op.cit. At least five obviously fire-damaged 5th October 2011, lot 28, where further doucai stem cups of
Chenghua pieces are remaining in the Palace Museum, Beijing, related shape or design are recorded.
see The Complete Collection of Treasures, op.cit., pls 169-172;
one in the National Museum of China, Beijing, see Zhongguo
Guojia Bowuguan guancang wenwu yanjiu congshu/Studies
on the Collections of the National Museum of China. Ciqi juan,
Mingdai [Porcelain section, Ming dynasty], Shanghai, 2007, pl.
55; and three or more in the National Palace Museum, Taipei,
see Chenghua ciqi tezhan/Special Exhibition of Ch’eng-hua
IN HIS MAJESTY’S PALM: EXQUISITE PORCELAIN PLAYTHINGS 15
