Page 22 - Bonhams Hong Kong The Skinner Moon Flasks

fig.3 Palace Museum Auditing Report, Palace Museum, Beijing, 1929,
vol.3, book 3, p.9, scroll 4., ‘Palace of Double Brilliance’ and other palaces

According to the inventory records of the Palace Museum Fresh Fragrance) (fig.4)5 and in the Guangxu-period Imperial
collection, there are twenty-eight blue and white ‘Bajixiang’ Archives (Shu Fang Zhai Chenshe Dang (fig.5)
moonflasks in the Qing Court collection (see Table 1 for
details). Six additional similar moonflasks are on long- According to the gezuo chengzuo huoji qingdang: Jiangxi
term loan to other museums and institutions. The original shao ciqi chu《各作承做活計清檔•江西燒瓷器處》(Imperial
placement locations in the palaces of these six loaned Palace Workshops Archives: Ceramics Production of
examples can be traced in the records of the Chen She Jiangxi), dated Qianlong second year (1737) and recorded
Dang (Records of Display) and Gugong Wupin Diancha by the Imperial Household Department: ‘On the thirteenth
Baogao (Palace Museum Auditing Report).3 day of the tenth month, Secretary Liu Shanjiu, Head of
Department Samuha, Tax Officer Bai Shixiu said, Eunuch
The 28 Palace Museum examples mentioned above can Mao Tuan, Yu Shijie and Gaoyu, presented an iron-red-
be classified into two sizes. The larger versions are around glazed bowl… By Imperial decree: Vases, bowls and plates
50cm high; the diameter of the mouth is 8cm wide, and the produced in the future must copy the quality of the red
foot rim measures 16.5cm long and 12cm wide (fig.1). The glaze and use the zhuanshu seal mark, also reproduce the
smaller versions are around 34.5cm high; the diameter of the smaller moonflasks, ‘horse-hanging’ flasks, in various
mouth is 5.5cm wide, and the foot rim measures 12.5cm long glazes…’ (fig.6)6
and 9cm wide (fig.2). Two of the smaller versions forming
a pair, was originally placed on the shelf of ‘One Hundred It is therefore evident that the pair of smaller moonflasks
Curios’ in the southern sector of the Forbidden City, at the located at the rear of the ‘Studio of Fresh Fragrance’ were
rear of the ‘Studio of Fresh Fragrance’ in the Chong hua produced shortly after the tenth month of the second year
gong or ‘Palace of Double Brilliance’ (fig.3),4 as recorded of the Qianlong reign (1737). Unlike this pair of ‘smaller
in the Daoguang-period Imperial Archives, Shu Fang Zhai moonflasks’, the similar but larger moonflasks (50cm high)
Xianshe Chenshe Dang (Records of Display for the Studio of were originally kept in wooden containers as tongci in the

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