Page 186 - Sothebys Speelman Gems of Chinese Art

This pair of tea bowls, part of a tea set The poem is recorded in Qing gaozong yuzhi and a bowl in the Victoria and Albert Museum,
probably used by the Qianlong Emperor at tea shiwen quanji [Anthology of imperial Qianlong London, illustrated in Sir Harry Garner, Chinese
ceremonies held during New Year celebrations, poems and prose], Yuzhi shiwen chuji [Imperial Lacquer, London, 1979, pl. 93. Further examples
is inscribed with one of his favourite poems, poems, vol. 1], juan 36, p. 17. A translation by include a bowl sold in these rooms, 9th October
Sanqing cha (‘Three Purity Tea’). The Qianlong Clarence F. Shangraw is published in ‘Chinese 2007, lot 1644; and another pair also sold in
Emperor wrote this poem in the bingyin year (in Lacquers in Asian Art Museum of San Francisco’, these rooms, 1st May 2001, lot 678.
accordance with 1746), on the occasion of his Orientations, April 1986, p. 41.
Bowls inscribed with the Sanqing cha are also
36th birthday while sipping tea in his studio on
For a closely related pair of bowls also carved well-known in porcelain, decorated in cobalt or
a cold winter’s day. The poem describes the tea
with the Qianlong Emperor’s poem Sanqing cha iron-red; see a blue and white version sold in
made from plum blossoms, finger citron and pine
(‘Three Purity Tea’), see a pair in the Tianjin these rooms, 27th April 2003, lot 30, along with
nut kernels. These three ingredients are brewed
Municipal Art Museum, Tianjin, illustrated in an iron-red example, lot 31. For a jade bowl of the
in snow water, giving the tea a pure quality and
Zhongguo qiqi quanji [Complete series on same design, see one sold in these rooms, 2nd
special flavour. The poem further describes the
Chinese lacquer], vol. 6, Fuzhou, 1993, pl. 211; May 2005, lot 526.
virtues of tea making. Simplicity, austerity and
another pair in the Avery Brundage collection,
purity of tea drinking reminds the Emperor of
published in Clarence F. Shangraw, op. cit., p. 41;
Buddhist values.