Page 95 - Art D'Asie Paris

Interestingly, the poems on the current lidded tea bowl, and © 2004 by Sing's Antique Gallery
on the tea bowl in the Wang Xing Lou collection, bear an
additional four characters at the end of the poem, which fg. 1 - From the Wang Xing Lou collection illustrated
do not appear on the teapot, reading ‘Qianlong yuzhi’. in Imperial Perfection – The Palace Porcelain of Three
Both the teapot and the bowls bear the same two iron-red Chinese Emperors, Hong Kong, 2004, no. 56.
seals following the poem, reading ‘Qian’ and ‘Long’. The
painting in the panel on the teapot also depicts a scholar in
a waterside studio accompanied by a servant making tea,
but the atmospheric depiction of rain and wind, which is so
successful on the bowls, is not evident on the teapot.

Both the bowls and the teapot have underglaze blue six-
character seal-script Qianlong reign marks in on their bases
inside squares reserved against a turquoise ground. In the
case of the bowls a second, similar, mark appears inside the
circular fnial of the lid. On the interior of the lids are fve
red bats – symbolising the ‘Five Blessings’. When enjoying
‘steeped’ tea, lidded tea bowls of this kind enabled the
drinker to employ the refnement of using the lid to strain
the tea as he drank and thus prevent the tea leaves from
entering his mouth.

Sgrafiato grounds, such as those seen on the current bowl
were a feature of a small group of fne imperial porcelains
of the Qianlong reign, and were created using a limited
number of diferent coloured enamels. One of the most
successful was the ruby enamel seen on the present
lidded tea bowl. Similar ruby-enamel ground, with similar
sgrafiato feather-like scrolls can be seen on a larger bowl,
without a lid, in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing
(illustrated Porcelains with Cloisonne enamel Decoration and
Famille Rose Decoration, op. cit., p. 120, no. 104). The Beijing
bowl has four round reserved panels containing landscapes,
while the ruby ground is decorated with elaborate multi-
coloured foral scrolls, similar to those seen on the current
lidded tea bowl. This type of sgrafiato decoration was only
possible on Qing dynasty porcelains after the development
of the famille rose palette, which did not fow when fred.
Thus the design could be fnely incised through the enamel
before fring, and the decorative lines would still be crisply
visible after fring, creating a ground of richness and
elegance.

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