Page 53 - Christies September 13 to 14th Fine Chinese Works of Art New York

Works from the Prince Kung Collection have always exuded prestige, from the frst 1913 sale when the
top buyers of the day thronged the sale room to, more recently, when a pair of jade embellished zitan
screens sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1 December 2010, lot 3008.
Prince Kung was a hereditary title frst bestowed to Aisin Gioro Yixin (1833-1898), who was the sixth
son of the Daoguang Emperor, as well as one of the most infuential statesmen in the late Qing dynasty.
Directly involved in instigating the Xinyou Coup in 1861, he was appointed Prince-Regent afterwards.
He was compelled to sign the Convention of Peking, which set the scene for an era later known as the
‘Tongzhi Restoration’. Personally urging the Qing Empire to reform its foreign diplomacy, he launched
the Self-Strengthening Movement, but was criticized by the conservative Qing-liu school and ridiculed
as ‘Devil Number Six’ (for Prince Kung was the sixth son of the Daoguang Emperor). His contention
for the throne against his half-brother Yizhu (who became the Xianfeng Emperor) was a tale which
fascinated people, who have painstakingly combed both the oficial Qing archive and apocryphal
accounts for riveting details of palace intrigue.
In 1851, Yixin was given an extensive mansion by the Xianfeng Emperor. This 18th century mansion,
which is now a museum, became known as the most sumptuous in Beijing and was luxuriously
furnished in the Qing style, with jades and bronzes primarily housed in the great library. He was
frequently invited by his brother, Emperor Xianfeng, to visit the Palace so that they could view art and
antiques together, and Prince Kung became known as one of the most informed antique experts among
the imperial princes. The treasures from the Prince Kung collection evoke the lost splendors of the
Qing period: the preface to the 1913 sale catalogue speaks eloquently of their home in the Prince Kung
mansion: ‘In a place like this one might spend weeks in perfect contentment, enjoying nature and the
great art collection’.
Pu Wei (1880-1936), also known as Xiao Gongwang (Prince Kung, Junior), was the grandson of Yixin
(1833-1898) and inherited the imperial title of Prince Kung in 1898, as well as his grandfather’s mansion
in Beijing. A year after the Qing dynasty was overthrown in 1911, Pu Wei made the painful decision to
sell the family treasures in this mansion in order to raise funds for a military reinstatement of the Qing
dynasty, and entrusted them to the Japanese antique dealer Yamanaka Sadajiro. He wrote in his diary on
17th January 1912: ‘There will be severe regrets for this decision. A sacrifce of the family has to be made
in order to extricate a troubled country. In this view, a dealer must be found for the antiques to be turned
into funds’. The 1913 sale of the collection in New York featured 536 lots, and on 5-6 March in the same
year a further 211 lots from Prince Kung’s Collection were ofered in London.

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