Page 176 - Bonhams Cornette Saint Cyr, Property from the estate of Jean-Pierre Rousset (1936-2021)

Lot 68: Galeries Georges Petit, Paris, Sequestre Worch, 29 March 1922, lot 344

The Rousset guqin table is extremely rare and only one other example Aside from Court ritual music however, the guqin can be enjoyed
is known - almost certainly part of the same set or pair as the present privately or in small groups and many Ming dynasty princes and
lot - in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington D.C (acc.no.F1909.360). emperors were accomplished musicians themselves. Some Ming
The Freer Gallery guqin table appears to be near identical to the princes even made important contributions to musicology and
Rousset table in all aspects except for being red-ground lacquered music theory. The first Prince of Lu (1568-1614), brother to the Wanli
whereas the Rousset table is black-ground lacquered. The Freer table emperor, for example, had hundreds of guqin made for his household
was acquired by Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919) from Yamanaka & and wrote a treatise about the instrument, Guyin Zhengzong in 1634;
Company, Osaka, in 1909, and gifted to the Freer Gallery of Art in see one Prince Lu guqin, dated to 1634, in the Metropolitan Museum
1920. We know that the Rousset guqin table was sold on 29th March of Art, New York, illustrated by J.Kenneth Moore, et al, Musical
1922 having been owned by Edgar Worch in Paris, and the buyer at Instruments: Highlights of the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York,
the time was most probably Robert Rousset. The whereabouts of 2015, p.63.
both the Freer table prior to its ownership by Yamanaka & Co. and
the Rousset table prior to its ownership by Edgar Worch are yet to be Perhaps the most significant admirer of the guqin during the late Ming
discovered. dynasty, was the Chongzhen emperor (1627-1644). The emperor was
said to be an extremely accomplished guqin musician and could play
Further adding to the Rousset table's rarity, is its Imperial pedigree, more than thirty pieces, with his favourite song being 'Autumn in the
directly conveyed by the thirty-two five-clawed dragons, symbolic of Han Palace' (Han gong qiu). Besides being an accomplished musician
the emperor, and exuding Imperial grandeur and authority. Endowed of the guqin, he also composed many songs such as kongtong xing
with cosmological and metaphysical significance and empowered and Ju tong yin. It could be, therefore, that the the Rousset and Freer
to communicate the deepest feelings, the guqin, beloved of sages tables were made for the Chongzhen emperor's enjoyment.
and of Confucius, is the most prestigious instrument in China. The
Da Ming Huidian ('Collected Statutes of the Ming Dynasty') records The Imperial tradition of guqin playing can be traced back to the
that the Zhonghe shaoyue ('The Harmonious Ensemble') that played Northern Song dynasty emperor Huizong (r. 1100-1126), who was
Court ritual music during ceremonial occasions, had ten guqin in renowned for his artistic talent and cultivation, entwining Court and
their orchestra. The guqin thus played an important part in Ming ritual literati culture. Song Huizong embodied the cultivated literatus:
music. Interestingly, the records mention they should each be placed proficient in the Four Arts of the Scholar, qin, qi (chess), shu
on lacquered tables. It is therefore possible that the Rousset table, (calligraphy), and hua (painting). Song Huizong in fact, painted himself
together with the Freer one, belonged to a set that was used at Court playing the guqin on a table inlaid with a stone or brick slab; see Ting
for ritual purposes. qin tu in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Ming hua zhong de
guqin, Beijing, 2014, p.26. Song Huizong thus laid the foundations
for subsequent emperors to engage in literati pursuits while using the
painting and music as an allegory for the emperor ruling the realm as
harmoniously as he would his music.

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