Page 72 - Collecting and Displaying China's Summer Palace in the West

The Yuanmingyuan and Design Reform in Britain 57
and palace workshops produced carpets with phoenixes for imperial consorts. 45 In
ancestor portraits, empresses occupy phoenix thrones, often on carpets with phoenixes
and flowers. 46 These textiles quite possibly came from the Yuan ming yuan.
The court also contained enameled wares reportedly from the Yuanmingyuan.
Enamels appear in two London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company stereoviews.
Image no. 203 shows a large tripod vessel, pairs of zun and hu, and a penba hu (see
Figure 4.1). Image no. 85 depicts two incense burners and two vases, among smaller
items (see Figure 4.2). Chromolithographs in J. B. Waring’s Masterpieces of Industrial
Art show pieces from Remi’s “large collection.” Plates 35 and 248 depict a ceramic
gu and ding (with iron red reign mark barely visible), both with falangcai decoration
of lotus scrolls and bajixiang; two copper vases enamelled with lotus scrolls (one is
possibly the cloisonné yanyan in no. 85); 47 a cloisonné flask with lattice design; and
a small metal ding. 48 Comparisons with known Qing imperial vessels suggests
Yuanmingyuan provenance for some. Three ceramic ding censers reportedly looted
there in 1860 are in The Rifles (Berkshire and Wiltshire) Museum. Two have Qianlong
marks; one has a Daoguang mark. 49 In the Nanjing Museum is an imperial yellow
falangcai gu with Qianlong mark, which is comparable to The Rifles’ yellow Qianlong
51
50
censer. A cloisonné flask with lattice design is in the Palace Museum, Beijing. Qing
52
enameled penba hu for palace altars are also known. Remi sold 30 enamel lots with
53
other exhibition inventory, some apparently of high calibre. Only lot 71 had “a stamp
on the bottom,” though pieces without reign marks are among palace collec tions.
Waring also wrote that China veteran Lieutenant Charles Henry Cox (d. 1885?), 54
lent “a great incense burner . . . upwards of four feet in height” and that Lady
55
Michel lent “magnificent vases,” all from the “Summer Palace.” Lady Michel’s vases
were “jars” in the official catalogue. 56 These could be the hu in stereoview no. 203;
but the dragon-handled zun resemble two in a Qianlong-period wugong from
the Yuanmingyuan that the French army presented to Emperor Napoleon III
(r. 1852–1870) and Empress Eugénie (1826–1920). 57 Neither pair matches the Remi
catalogue entries, which increases the possibility that these belonged to Michel.
The incense burners in stereoview 85 match the descriptions and relative heights
of lots sold in 1863 at Christie’s, catalogued under the heading “Enamels from the
Summer Palace”:

209 A NOBLE BOWL AND COVER, with dolphin-handles, enameled with birds
and bats, in colours on pale-blue and turquoise ground, the cover surmounted
by a chasing in copper, gilt–24 in.
210 A MAGNIFICENT INCENSE BURNER, of extraordinary size, the bowl
supported on three elephants’ heads, of metal gilt, with pierced sides of copper
gilt, very richly chased and enameled, and surmounted by a chasing of dragons
–54 in. high. One of the largest pieces brought to England, used as a stove in
the Emperor’s library. 58

The consignor’s name, “Cox,” is written in the margin. The items also match two
lots in sale catalogues for the collection of Alfred Morrison (1821–1897), who was
acquiring imperial pieces at the time. 59
The evidence suggests that in the court visitors encountered substantial objects
from the Yuanminguan. The critical response was strong. Waring wrote: