18TH CENTURY

The present set of enameled belt fittings reflects the Qing emperors' avid fascination with foreign curiosities. It is known, however, that enameled clocks, watches, plaques with devotional scenes and the like were brought to Beijing by the Jesuits, with the aim of attracting the curiosity of the Court, as early as1687, when Jean de Fontaney (1673-1710), a French Jesuit in China, wrote a letter to his superiors requesting enameled objects as gifts. These gifts were usually presented to the emperor on the arrival of new missionaries at court and on the occasion of the emperor's birthday or anniversary. A set of six enameled gold European-subject belt fittings, Geneva, circa 1790,sold at Christie’s New York, 15 September 2011, lot 1216, was accompanied by a letter stating that the fittings were reputedly given to Qianlong to commemorate his 60^th anniversary. Another example of European enameling depicting European figures, but on a pocket watch, is in the Palace Museum, Taipei, image no. K1D003315N000000000PAC.

While the enameling and style of decoration may be European, the fittings were made to suit the Chinese market, and to function as belt plaques used to decorate a chao dai (court belt). See, for example, the painting on silk of an emperor's chaodai, illustrated by G. Dickinson and L. Wrigglesworth in Imperial Wardrobe, London, 1990, pl.138, p. 156, where various items such as perfume sachets, purses, and knives can be seen hanging from the oval loop of the belt plaques. See, also, beltplaques with the same construction in the Qing Court Collection illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 51 - Costumes and Accesories of the Qing Court, Hong Kong, 2005, pp. 263-4, pl. 167.