Page 109 - The Parry Collection Bonhams London November 2 2021

(
Fig.10 (Palace Museum, Taipei) Fig.11 Fig.12 The Nelson-Atkins Museum
of Art, Kansas City, Missouri)

Palace Museum and the Institute of Antiquities in Beijing
were the most exquisite. King George V and Queen Mary
8
of England, the King of Romania, and the Crown Prince
of Sweden, etc. visited the Exhibition. The total number of
visitors was 422,000. There were as many as 25 lectures on
Chinese art held during the Exhibition. Six pieces from the
Parry family’s Collection were included in this Exhibition. In the
exhibition catalogue of the International Exhibition of Chinese
Art, the Qianlong painted enamel melon-shaped teapot was
numbered 2191 (Fig.13).
China is a major centre of tea culture and drinking tea is
an important part of Chinese food culture, similar to how
Westerners like to drink coffee. The teapots used by the Fig.13 (The Parry teapot as photographed in 1935)
Imperial family in the Qing dynasty were made of a wide
variety of materials, including gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, 1 The First Historical Archives of China and the Cultural Relics Museum
porcelain, clay, jade, glass, cloisonné enamel and agate. It of The Chinese University of Hong Kong: ‘The Archives Collection of the
can be clearly seen from the records of the Qing Archives Internal Affairs Office of the Qing Palace’, vol.9, 2005, Beijing, p.509.
that the large-scale boxing, sorting and collecting of porcelain
began in the Third year of the Qianlong reign, and included 2 Ibid., p.134.
not only the exquisite porcelains of the previous dynasties, but 3 Ibid., p.139.
also the various cloisonné and painted enamels made in the
Qianlong reign. The Archival record demonstrates how the 4 The First Historical Archives of China and the Cultural Relics Museum
Qianlong Emperor valued painted enamel utensils, and even of The Chinese University of Hong Kong: ‘The Archives Collection of the
he himself was reluctant to use them, but placed them in a Internal Affairs Office of the Qing Palace’, vol.8, 2005, Beijing, p.149.
box for his own collection. This painted enamel melon-shaped 5 Chen Xiasheng, Ming and Qing Enamel Exhibition Catalogue, 1999, p.224,
teapot was made in the early part of the Qianlong reign, and no.114.
appeared in the Parry family collection in 1925, ten years later
it was exhibited in the famous 1935-1936 Royal Academy 6 Tian Xiu, ‘A Summary of Thousand-Character Essays’, Forbidden City Press,
Exhibition, and eighty-five years later, in 2021, the teapot is 1990.
now being auctioned at Bonhams in London, ushering in new 7 The First Historical Archives of China and the Cultural Relics Museum of
collectors. This is the past and present of the painted enamel The Chinese University of Hong Kong: ‘The Archives Collection of the
melon-shaped teapot. Internal Affairs Office of the Qing Palace’, vol.8, 2005, p.508.
Zhang Rong 8 Xu Wanling, ‘The History and Influence of the 1935 International Exhibition
1 September 2021 of Chinese Art in London’, China Reading News, 18 December 2019.

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