Page 53 - For the Love of Porcelain

(baishou tu). These compilations of versions learned men were attracted to them for more
of the character shou date as far back as the superficial reasons. The latter were more
Tang dynasty (618–907) or earlier, but at interested in the prestige associated with a
present we only have references to these early scholarly interest in antiquity. In the eyes of
examples, not surviving works. One hundred the antiquarians, these frivolous collectors
shou can include all the different Chinese were only focused on the decorative aspects
script types, from the forms of characters of these ancient characters and inscriptions,
carved on oracle bones to cursive script, to and were less concerned with authenticity
everything in between. Eighteenth-century than the aura of sophistication that an object
examples of baishou tu include a version decorated with what looked like a profusion
carved on the first day of 1795 for the great of ancient character forms brought them.
repository of carved stone steles, the Forest
of Stone Steles at the Xi’an Beilin Museum, The use of shou characters on ceramics
in Xi’an, shown here as a reproduction in reached an unprecedented height during
the form of a rubbing. In this example as on the reign of the Qing-dynasty Kangxi
the birthday hanging illustrated in this essay, emperor (r. 1661–1722). At this time this
the shou characters are all variant seal script Manchu emperor of China commissioned
forms (fig. 3). A number of them have been vases with 10,000 shou (wanshou) in variant
traditionally identified with fanciful names forms of seal script from the imperial kilns
like insect script, bird script, dragon script, at Jingdezhen. Peter K.Y. Lam has argued
and phoenix script. these were either for the emperor’s sixtieth
birthday or perhaps for his grandmother’s
The fascination with the variant forms seventieth birthday. The one illustrated here
of seal script has its roots in the eleventh from the collection of the Palace Museum
century with scholar-officials like Su Shi in Beijing has the character shou repeated
(1037–1101) and Mi Fu (1051–1105). 10,000 times in 975 different seal script
4
Both were proponents of antiquarian studies styles, many of them fanciful (fig. 4).
that involved palaeography and epigraphy
(known as jinshi xue), which was inspired The interest in novel forms of seal script
by the discovery of inscribed stone steles, shou characters carried over into the name of an upmarket nineteenth-century bestow good wishes. Yet, underlying the 5
bronzes, jades, and other artefacts from nineteenth century as antiquarians such as restaurant, where large birthday banquets beautiful sentiments and images was a Bowl and dish,
6
China’s ancient past. Antiquarian studies Chen Jieqi (1813–84) and his student Wu could be held. deep cultural ambition on the part of those Jingdezhen, China,
continued to flourish off and on through Dacheng (1835–1902) continued the study who commissioned and purchased works Qing dynasty,
the Ming and Qing dynasties, fuelled by and classification of unique and unorthodox At the most fundamental level, the use decorated with ancient-looking forms of 1644 - 1911,
new forms of seal script characters that script styles. Representations of ancient of archaic or archaised forms of longevity shou. This was to connect with China’s ca. 1821–74, h. 6 cm,
came to light in ancient bronze and stone scripts proliferated in this period through characters as ornamental motifs on ceramics ancient past and all the cachet that it brings d. 12.1 cm, porcelain,
inscriptions. Scholars collected antiquities print images, including photolithography. and other decorative arts was a desire to in traditional Chinese society. painted in enamel colours
with inscriptions as well as rubbings of Individuals from the merchant and other and gilt, Victoria and
ancient inscriptions and published works on classes were delighted at the increased Albert Museum, London,
them. access to and the popularity of forms inv. nos. 805&A-1883
of writing, and the bai shou seal script
The characters found on ‘one hundred decoration appeared on objects for popular
longevity characters’ images include consumption, including porcelain dishes
characters based on antiquated forms, but used in restaurants. 5 An overglaze enamel
Notes
often also apocryphal ones as well. That porcelain bowl and a dish in the collection
apocryphal characters are found on baishou of the Victoria and Albert Museum feature a
1 C.X. Guan and Ma Zhao, Mingdai lishi gushi, 3 Xu Shen completed his Explaining and 5 S.J. Brown, Pastimes: From Art and
tu reflects an ongoing tension in the history mix of seal script shou characters enhanced Jilin Sheng 1984, p. 177. Analyzing Characters (Shuowen jiezi) around Antiquarianism to Modern Chinese
of jinshi studies: while scholars scrutinised with gold enamel. A baishou Tang ji mark of 2 E. Ströber, Symbols on Chinese Porcelain: 10,000 100 AD. Historiography, Honolulu 2011, p. 7.
Times Happiness, Stuttgart / Leeuwarden 2011, 4 P. Lam, ‘Myriad Longevity Without Boundaries. 6 http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O22897/
ancient inscriptions as historical artefacts and the Hundred Longevity Hall appears on the
cat. no. 54, p. 144. Some Qing imperial Birthday Ceramics from bowl-and-dish-unknown/
even argued that they had more authenticity base of each. Victoria and Albert cataloguers Hong Kong Collections,’ Arts of Asia 40(5)
than traditional Chinese literary sources, less suggest that ‘Baishou Tang’ was likely the (September/October 2010), p. 107.
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