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拍品專文
This impressive musical box was made in France and presented as tribute to the Qianlong emperor. The Qing emperors had always been fascinated by Western mechanical technology and were open to ideas of technological advancements from the Jesuits in China. In particular, they had vested interests in horology. As Yang Boda notes in the Catalogue of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Exhibition of Tributes from Guangdong to the Qing Court, 1987, during the early to mid Qing dynasty, there was a high demand for clocks in the Palace complex where "the Qing emperors lived and worked under the chimes of their clocks" with a clock "in every hall, on every wall and on every table". Many of these clocks were imported from Europe, although there were those which were made in Guangzhou or in the Imperial workshops in the Yangxin Hall in Beijing. A number of these time pieces were musical automaton clocks which also served to entertain the emperors, and the present musical box served exactly this purpose, a subsidiary of the musical clock.
The decoration on the musical box is unique, with the oil-painted panels on each side of the box. The paintings are all very different in style and were copied from works of different eras. The automaton landscape is a Flemish one, as evident by the ships and windmill, and painted in the style of the Flemish old master Jan Breughel I (1568-1625); while the one of the man playing a lute is also of the Netherlandish Renaissance school, possibly a pastiche after the artist Frans van Mieris; the pastoral scene of the couple dancing is 18th-century French and recalls the styles of artists like Mercier, Watteau or Boucher; and the epic Italian Renaissance painting of The Judgement of Solomon may be compared with the works of Veronese. It is possible that these panels were copied from a French state collection close to the region where the musical box was made and whence the inspiration for the panels were derived.
Compare the musical box to clocks with similar cases, painted on the facets with European subjects or in imitation of well-known oil paintings, illustrated in Timepieces Collected By Qing Emperors In The Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1995, p. 90, a clock made by Barbot with European landscapes and portraits painted on wood on the case and doors; p. 111, a clock made by James Cox and dated 1780, with a rectangular case closely related in style to the present lot and with automaton figures in a landscape; and p. 199, another English-made clock enamelled on the case with Biblical scenes.
The engraved symbols and inscriptions on the gilt foliate surmounts of the present musical box would have been significant and meaningful for Emperor Qianlong, the recipient of this tribute. Engraved with the image of the sun, the saying 'Je dessipe les nuages' translates as 'I dissipate the clouds', referring to the emperor's qualities of power and strength, as symbolised by the sun. The crescent moon is shown on the plaque where appears the inscription 'Ma vertu acroit' or 'My virtue grows (as the crescent moon waxes)'. The third engraving depicts a star and the phrase 'Elle nous guide', 'We are guided', again a reference to the emperor's virtuous rule. The fourth inscription reads 'Je produit passant'.
The presentation box is inscribed Qianlong Yufu Baocang Huangdi Jinhan Bao Baying Minzhong, 'Qianlong Imperial Palace Precious Gold Inlaid Eight-Tone Musical Clock'. The suspended enamelled pocketwatch is dated 19th century and a later replacement.
The decoration on the musical box is unique, with the oil-painted panels on each side of the box. The paintings are all very different in style and were copied from works of different eras. The automaton landscape is a Flemish one, as evident by the ships and windmill, and painted in the style of the Flemish old master Jan Breughel I (1568-1625); while the one of the man playing a lute is also of the Netherlandish Renaissance school, possibly a pastiche after the artist Frans van Mieris; the pastoral scene of the couple dancing is 18th-century French and recalls the styles of artists like Mercier, Watteau or Boucher; and the epic Italian Renaissance painting of The Judgement of Solomon may be compared with the works of Veronese. It is possible that these panels were copied from a French state collection close to the region where the musical box was made and whence the inspiration for the panels were derived.
Compare the musical box to clocks with similar cases, painted on the facets with European subjects or in imitation of well-known oil paintings, illustrated in Timepieces Collected By Qing Emperors In The Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1995, p. 90, a clock made by Barbot with European landscapes and portraits painted on wood on the case and doors; p. 111, a clock made by James Cox and dated 1780, with a rectangular case closely related in style to the present lot and with automaton figures in a landscape; and p. 199, another English-made clock enamelled on the case with Biblical scenes.
The engraved symbols and inscriptions on the gilt foliate surmounts of the present musical box would have been significant and meaningful for Emperor Qianlong, the recipient of this tribute. Engraved with the image of the sun, the saying 'Je dessipe les nuages' translates as 'I dissipate the clouds', referring to the emperor's qualities of power and strength, as symbolised by the sun. The crescent moon is shown on the plaque where appears the inscription 'Ma vertu acroit' or 'My virtue grows (as the crescent moon waxes)'. The third engraving depicts a star and the phrase 'Elle nous guide', 'We are guided', again a reference to the emperor's virtuous rule. The fourth inscription reads 'Je produit passant'.
The presentation box is inscribed Qianlong Yufu Baocang Huangdi Jinhan Bao Baying Minzhong, 'Qianlong Imperial Palace Precious Gold Inlaid Eight-Tone Musical Clock'. The suspended enamelled pocketwatch is dated 19th century and a later replacement.