Page 152 - Bonhams Asian Art London November 5, 2020

It is rare to find inscribed jade tea bowls, as a
number of these were usually made of porcelain,
either decorated in underglaze blue or iron red.
Compare with two porcelain bowls similarly
decorated, the first in the collection of the National
Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Empty Vessels,
Replenished Minds: The Culture, Practice and Art of
The Qing Court Collection; image courtesy of the Palace Museum, Beijing Tea, Taipei, 2002, p.152, no.129; and another also
in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated
in Emperor Qianlong’s Grand Cultural Enterprise,
Taipei, 2002, p.51, no.I-40.

The poem on the current bowl, Sanqing cha (三清
茶), ‘Tea of Three Purities’, was composed by the
Qianlong Emperor. It has been mentioned that the
Qianlong emperor was an avid drinker of tea, and
in the 11th year of his reign (1746) on his return
from visiting Mount Wutai, Shanxi Province, his
entourage sojourned to make tea using fallen snow.
In the brew, as well as Longjing tea leaves, were
the three additions of prunus, pine nut kernels and
finger citrus. It was this concoction that inspired
the emperor to compose the present poem ‘Tea of
Three Purities’.

The poems on the cover and body are the same
and were published in Yuzhishi chuji (Imperial Poems
I) (1736-1747). Following the poem, the bowl and
cover are inscribed Qianlong bingyin xiaochun
yuti, ‘inscribed in October of the Bingyin year of
Qianlong’ corresponding to 1746, following two
seals, Qian long. The subject of the poem confirms
that this bowl and cover was used specifically for
drinking tea.

Compare with a related white jade tea bowl and
cover, Qianlong six-character seal mark and of the
period, with the same poem, which was sold at
Christie’s Hong Kong, 26 November 2014, lot 2931.

Yuzhishi chuji (Imperial Poems I) (1736-1747)

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