Page 27 - Six treasures of IMpeerial Art Sothebys Hong Kong April 3 2019

Fig. 1
‘On a Xuande bottomless vase’, Qing Gaozong yuzhi shiwen quan ji [Anthology of imperial Qianlong poems and prose], Yuzhi shi si ji [Imperial
poems, vol. 4], juan 1, pp. 32-33
圖一
〈詠宣德窰無當尊〉，《清高宗御製詩文全集．御製詩四集》，卷1，頁32-33

Here, the Emperor alludes to a story in Han Feizi (Sayings of of fine silks and porcelains to foreign lands. Of course, the
Master Han Fei), where Marquis Zhao, ruler of Han, 362-333 exchange was not one-sided, as the court received foreign
BC, is being asked ‘Now, here is a white jade goblet without goods in return, and Chinese craftsmen came in contact with
a bottom, and a pottery goblet with a bottom. Which one, my foreign styles and tastes. The imperial kilns at Jingdezhen,
Lord, will you use to drink?. . . . To be a ruler and yet let the which were under complete court control and produced only
good words of his ministers leak away is just like having a to imperial order, created many new styles, among them a
jade goblet that lacks a bottom’. series of vessels in the shapes of Persian, Syrian or Egyptian
metal prototypes, such as the present stand. Curiously,
Again, according to the Zaobanchu records, in 1775, the however, the majority of these vessels never seem to have
Emperor asked for the cloisonné liner of a piece such as this reached any foreign destination: of the six known companion
to be replaced with a new one. His second poem may have
been composed for this piece, since in it he relates that a pieces to this stand, only one can be traced to Syria, while
Jingtai style (i.e. cloisonné) liner was used, since no Xuande the other five are preserved in China.
bronze example could be found. Among this famous group of early Ming porcelains in foreign
metal shapes, stands such as the present piece are among
Later entries, from the Daoguang period (1820-1850), which the rarest. That they are so well known is not due to a large
refer to a blue-and-white wudangzun flower vessel with a number of extant examples, but probably because they are
zitan stand, or a wudangzun flower vessel with a copper liner
and zitan stand, suggest that these pieces were actively used so memorable. It is not only the shape that is unique; it is
in the palace, not as stands but, fitted with liners, as flower also highly unusual to find Arabic inscriptions on porcelains
of this period, and even the supporting borders chosen to
vases.
accompany them are very special.
When the Yongle Emperor sent massive fleets to ports all Metal stands of this form were made under Mamluk rule in
over Asia and as far as East Africa and also dispatched Egypt or Syria, particularly in the first half of the fourteenth
overland expeditions to the Middle East, to showcase China’s century. Generally considerably larger, they were used to
supremacy internationally, he distributed huge quantities
support trays. They tend to be made of brass and are inlaid

25