Page 131 - Bonhams Fine Chinese Art November 2018

Large ice chests of this type were designed for use in the palaces of two blocks of ice per day. Surviving records indicate that originally
during the hot summer months. They were filled with ice and placed the ice chests were made of wood, and usually lined with lead, like
in certain rooms used by the Imperial family. The ice was used to cool the example in the Victoria and Albert Museum illustrated by C.Clunas
drinks, fruit and sweet snacks, as well as cooling the surrounding area in Chinese Furniture, London, 1997, p.99, no.89, or lined with zinc
and somewhat alleviating the oppressive heat of Beijing, which the as in the case of the example in the Musée Guimet illustrated by
M.Beurdeley, Chinese Furniture, Tokyo, 1979, p.95, no.130. However,
Manchu emperors found so uncomfortable. While usually placed on by the 18th century ice chests destined for the apartments of the
stands, like the current example, these chests were sometimes placed empress and dowager empress are recorded as being made of plain
directly on the floor beneath tables to cool both the food and those bronze with pewter linings.
seated at the table. In winter ice blocks were cut from the Inner Golden
River and were stored in the five ice vaults in the Forbidden City near See one of a pair of cloisonné enamel ice chests, Qianlong mark and
the Gate of the Great Ancestors. During the period from the first day of the period, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of
of the fifth month to the twentieth day of the seventh month specific the Palace Museum: Metal-bodied Enamel Ware, Hong Kong, 2002,
members of the Imperial Household Department received an allocation pl.129.

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