Lot Essay
The inscription may be translated as:
Made by the Chief Superintendent of Works in the Yangxindian (Imperial Household Workshop attached to the Hall of Moral Cultivation).
Respectfully presented by Tang Ying, a native of Shenyang and Chief
Imperial Commission of the three Customs at Huai'an, Suquan and Hai'an in the Jiangnan region,
Superintendent of Jiujiang Customs Office and concurrently Superintendent of Ceramic Production in Jiangxi,
Junior Secretary of the Imperial Household Department and concurrently Captain of the Banner (of Chahar), promoted by five ranks.
Given as an offering in perpetuity before the altar of Tianxian Shengmu (Holy Mother of the God of Heaven) at Dongba.
On an auspicious day in Spring in the sixth year of Qianlong reign (1741)
Several inscribed ritual vases of this type are known, together with matching candlesticks dated to 1740 or 1741; each set comprises five vessels, forming the wu gong, which were uniformally arranged in a line across the altar. A pair of candlesticks bequeathed to the Victoria and Albert Museum by Stephen Bushell's grand-daughter, inscribed with the same inscription, are all part of the altar vessels commissioned in 1741. The large candlesticks, assembled from three sections with an overall height of 67 cm., are illustrated by R. Kerr, Chinese Ceramics, Porcelain of the Qing Dynasty 1644-1911, no. 45; the author mentions a trumpet-shaped vase bearing an identical inscription with a height of 63.5 cm., now in the Musuem of Chinese History, Beijing, ibid, p. 67. For an illustration of the Beijing vase, cf. Chugoku no Hakubutsukan, vol. 5, Chugoku Rekishi Hakubutsukan, pl. 195.
From the inscription on the present vase, this vessel was produced for the Daoist temple at Dongba. In reference to the candlesticks, Stephen Bushell notes that Dongba is 'a town situated on the northern bank of the canal which connects T'ungchou with Peking'. Bushell also mentions a tripod incense burner which 'had long before been broken and lost', R. Kerr, op. cit., p. 67; and to date, there appears to be no incense burner published.
Tang Ying who commissioned the production of the vase, is perhaps the most well-known of the supervisors of the Imperial factory, whose prolific treatises provide a fuller account of ceramic production at Jingdezhen. He became the supervisor at Jingdezhen in the sixth year of Yongzheng's reign (1728) and remained in office until 1756. His work is discussed by S. Jenyns, Later Chinese Porcelain, pp. 60-69.
Compare to a similar vase bearing a date of 1740 from the Collection of Laurent Heliot, and sold as part of the British Rail Pension Fund, in Hong Kong, 16 May 1989, lot 39.
(US$45,000-58,000)
Made by the Chief Superintendent of Works in the Yangxindian (Imperial Household Workshop attached to the Hall of Moral Cultivation).
Respectfully presented by Tang Ying, a native of Shenyang and Chief
Imperial Commission of the three Customs at Huai'an, Suquan and Hai'an in the Jiangnan region,
Superintendent of Jiujiang Customs Office and concurrently Superintendent of Ceramic Production in Jiangxi,
Junior Secretary of the Imperial Household Department and concurrently Captain of the Banner (of Chahar), promoted by five ranks.
Given as an offering in perpetuity before the altar of Tianxian Shengmu (Holy Mother of the God of Heaven) at Dongba.
On an auspicious day in Spring in the sixth year of Qianlong reign (1741)
Several inscribed ritual vases of this type are known, together with matching candlesticks dated to 1740 or 1741; each set comprises five vessels, forming the wu gong, which were uniformally arranged in a line across the altar. A pair of candlesticks bequeathed to the Victoria and Albert Museum by Stephen Bushell's grand-daughter, inscribed with the same inscription, are all part of the altar vessels commissioned in 1741. The large candlesticks, assembled from three sections with an overall height of 67 cm., are illustrated by R. Kerr, Chinese Ceramics, Porcelain of the Qing Dynasty 1644-1911, no. 45; the author mentions a trumpet-shaped vase bearing an identical inscription with a height of 63.5 cm., now in the Musuem of Chinese History, Beijing, ibid, p. 67. For an illustration of the Beijing vase, cf. Chugoku no Hakubutsukan, vol. 5, Chugoku Rekishi Hakubutsukan, pl. 195.
From the inscription on the present vase, this vessel was produced for the Daoist temple at Dongba. In reference to the candlesticks, Stephen Bushell notes that Dongba is 'a town situated on the northern bank of the canal which connects T'ungchou with Peking'. Bushell also mentions a tripod incense burner which 'had long before been broken and lost', R. Kerr, op. cit., p. 67; and to date, there appears to be no incense burner published.
Tang Ying who commissioned the production of the vase, is perhaps the most well-known of the supervisors of the Imperial factory, whose prolific treatises provide a fuller account of ceramic production at Jingdezhen. He became the supervisor at Jingdezhen in the sixth year of Yongzheng's reign (1728) and remained in office until 1756. His work is discussed by S. Jenyns, Later Chinese Porcelain, pp. 60-69.
Compare to a similar vase bearing a date of 1740 from the Collection of Laurent Heliot, and sold as part of the British Rail Pension Fund, in Hong Kong, 16 May 1989, lot 39.
(US$45,000-58,000)