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Lot Essay
One of the rectangular panels on the present bell reads Da Qing Qianlong shinian zhi, ‘made in the 10th year of the Qianlong reign’, corresponding to 1745. Another panel reads Bei yi ze, which refers to a classical pitch corresponding to G-sharp in Western musicology.
This bell would have been one of a group of sixteen bells, each with its own tone, which together made up a set of bianzhong. These would have been suspended from a wooden frame, and all were similar in size, shape and design, but with varying thickness of walls in order to produce the different musical notes. These bells played a prominent role in Imperial ritual ceremonies and banquets.
The current bell is possibly modelled after the Qianlong Emperor’s own collection of archaic bronze bells, which were illustrated in the Xiqing gujian, and some of the Zhou dynasty examples have a similar design to the present bell such as the bosses and archaistic motifs. The trigrams on the bell may possibly be an innovative stylisation of the trigram qian, which symbolises the ‘son of heaven’ and was the Qianlong Emperor’s favoured symbol.
Compare to a bronze bell, also dated to the tenth year of the reign of Qianlong, included in the exhibition, Oriental Works of Art, The Oriental Art Gallery, London, June 1993, no. 136. See also a very similar bell inscribed with the characters Yi zhe, sold at Christie’s New York, 21-22 September 1995, lot 492. Another Qianlong bell, dated to 1743, but cast with dragons motifs, was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 27 May 2008, lot 1540.
This bell would have been one of a group of sixteen bells, each with its own tone, which together made up a set of bianzhong. These would have been suspended from a wooden frame, and all were similar in size, shape and design, but with varying thickness of walls in order to produce the different musical notes. These bells played a prominent role in Imperial ritual ceremonies and banquets.
The current bell is possibly modelled after the Qianlong Emperor’s own collection of archaic bronze bells, which were illustrated in the Xiqing gujian, and some of the Zhou dynasty examples have a similar design to the present bell such as the bosses and archaistic motifs. The trigrams on the bell may possibly be an innovative stylisation of the trigram qian, which symbolises the ‘son of heaven’ and was the Qianlong Emperor’s favoured symbol.
Compare to a bronze bell, also dated to the tenth year of the reign of Qianlong, included in the exhibition, Oriental Works of Art, The Oriental Art Gallery, London, June 1993, no. 136. See also a very similar bell inscribed with the characters Yi zhe, sold at Christie’s New York, 21-22 September 1995, lot 492. Another Qianlong bell, dated to 1743, but cast with dragons motifs, was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 27 May 2008, lot 1540.