Page 107 - The Parry Collection Bonhams London November 2 2021

Fig.5 Fig.6

Ten zitan boxes of various sizes and stored, but also painted enamel wares, Yixing enamelled
Two black lacquered boxes of various sizes wares, glass enamel etc. Therefore, it is not difficult for us
to grasp the meaning of ‘the matching case was placed in
Eighteen nanmu boxes of various sizes the Qianqing Palace with the enamel vessels.’ The Qianlong
Thirteen firwood boxes Emperor determined that the pair of painted enamel melon-
shaped teapots met the standards for the enamelware in the
Decree: match the boxes with the porcelain. By order of Qianqing Palace.
the Emperor. Fifth, the Archives of the Fifth year of the Qianlong reign clearly
On the Fifth day of the Fifth month commissioner Bai Shixiu stated ‘two melon-shaped teapots with painted enamel on
selected several pieces of porcelain and assigned a box to copper body’. Where is the pair to the Parry teapot?
it and presented it to eunuch Hu Shijie for inspection. The The answer to this question remains unclear as two other
remaining unpaired pieces will be presented separately when similar teapots are known in museum collections: the first, is
the assembly is completed. Then all the porcelains in the now in the Palace Museum in Taipei ; and the second is in
5
Chonghua Palace and the Yangxin Hall will also be selected the Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, Missouri (acc.no.50-
and placed in the matching box according to the order. On the 24.1,2). The shape (Fig.10), size, form and mark (Fig.11), and
cover of the box list the name and colour of the porcelain. 4 decorative style of the Palace Museum, Taipei teapot, as well
The Qianlong Emperor’s orders contain important information as that of the Nelson-Atkins Museum teapot (Fig.12) are the
which can be summarised as follows: Firstly, already in same, except that compared to the Parry teapot, the flowers
the Third year of his reign, the Qianlong Emperor began to painted on the body are different and there is a slight variation
organise and collect the precious porcelains in the Forbidden in the form of the dragons on the handle and spout. The Parry
City. From the Archives we can tell that the boxed porcelains teapot is painted with plum blossoms, peonies, hollyhock,
included those from the Song dynasty and up to his own and lotus, while the landscape paintings are similar but not
reign. Secondly, he kept his porcelain in the Qianqing Palace identical to the other two teapots. The Taipei Palace Museum
and the Duanning Hall on the eastern side of the Forbidden teapot is marked with the reference number Lü 4 8 8 24-1.
City. Thirdly, the boxes had labels or were carved with the What does this tell us? At the beginning of the establishment
name, age, colour and grade of the piece. Fourth, objects of the Palace Museum on 10th October 1925, they began to
were packed in pairs with boxes. From these records we can stock check the collections in the Forbidden City. At the time,
infer that it was not just porcelain that was packed in boxes they numbered the various palaces and halls in the order of

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