Page 190 - Christies September 13 to 14th Fine Chinese Works of Art New York

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A LARGE RECTANGULAR CLOISONNÉ ENAMEL PANEL
QIANLONG GUISI CYCLICAL DATE, CORRESPONDING TO 1773, AND OF THE PERIOD
The panel is decorated with a pair of pheasants, the male with brightly-colored plumage and the female
with golden-brown feathers, perched on top of a rock beside branches bearing yellow prunus fowers,
camellia blossoms, and clumps of narcissus. In the upper right corner is an imperial poem by the Qianlong
Emperor alluding to the scene, followed by the cyclical guisi date, the two characters yu ti (Imperial Poem),
an inscription signed by Wang Jihua (Respectfully inscribed by your servant Wang Jihua), and two seals
chen hua and jing shu.
28 in. x 18√ in. (71.1 cm. x 47.9 cm.), tielimu frame

$150,000-180,000

The poem on the present panel, composed by the Qianlong Emperor, is recorded in Yuzhi Shiji,
Compilation of Imperial Poems, vol. 4, juan 9, dated 1773. The original title of the poem as recorded in
Yuzhi Shiji can be read as ‘On Yang Dazhang’s bird and fower (painting), appropriating Wen Tingyun’s
style’, suggesting the scene depicted on the panel is based on a painting by Yang Dazhang, while
the poem above is after the style of Wen Tingyun. Yang Dazhang (active in the 18th century) was an
esteemed court painter during the Qianlong reign, specializing in the landscape and bird and fower
genres. Wen Tingyun (AD 812-870) was a celebrated poet from the late Tang dynasty and was highly
regarded by the Qianlong Emperor.
The inscription following the poem includes the name Wang Jihua (1717-1776), a native of Xiantang
(present-day Hangzhou in Zhejiang province), who served as a high oficial at the court of the Qianlong
Emperor. Wang managed the Wuying Hall in the Forbidden City, a storehouse for various rare books and
archives. In 1770, the Qianlong Emperor commissioned him to transcribe all seven volumes of the Lotus
Sutra. Upon his death at the age of 60, Wang was given the posthumous title Wenzhuang: see Zhongguo
meishujia renming cidian, Shanghai, 1981, p. 124.

An inlaid lacquer screen bearing a yu zhi mark and an inscription including the name Wang Jihua and
the same two seals was sold at Sotheby’s, Hong Kong, 5 November 1996, lot 1002. Another cloisonné
enamel panel, with very similar design and the same poem and seals as the present panel, was sold at
Christie’s Hong Kong, 29 May 2014, lot 3015.
清乾隆癸巳年(1773) 掐絲琺瑯御題詩文錦雞圖屏

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