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Lot Essay
It is very rarely that such an extensive dinner service has been preserved from the Guangxu reign, and the current service ranges from serving dishes and large bowls to the smallest condiment dishes. The design incorporating roundels composed of red, five-clawed, dragons amongst clouds with gilt details relates closely to a well-known group of large dishes with overall decoration of red dragons amongst clouds with gilt details, which share similar iron-red six-character marks with the current vessels. Examples of these large dishes can be seen in several international collections including the National Palace Museum, Taipei: Liu Liang-yu, A Survey of Chinese Ceramics, 5, Ch'ing Official and Popular Wares, Taipei, 1991, p. 267 lower image; the Weishaupt Collection, G. Avitable, From the Dragon's Treasure, London, 1987, p. 89, no. 123; and the Simon Kwan Collection, Imperial Porcelain of Late Qing From the Kwan Collection, Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1983, p. 116, no. 115. Interestingly the latter collection also contains a Guangxu box, on the circular cover of which is an iron-red and gilt dragon and cloud roundel of very similar composition to those seen on the current dinner service, ibid., p. 127, no. 129.
The imperial kiln had been burned down during the Taiping Rebellion in 1855, and was not rebuilt until 1866 under the Tongzhi reign, but by the Guangxu reign the Imperial kilns were fully functioning and porcelain production reached another peak. One of the characteristics of Guangxu production was an absence of copper red and a greater use of fine iron-red like that seen on the current vessels. The increased production in this period was encouraged by the Empress Dowager Cixi's lavish spending on porcelain. It was she who had engineered the Guangxu Emperor's accession to the throne, and she who ensured that ceremonies associated with his enthronement, as well as her own 50th, 60th and 70th birthdays were extremely ostentatious, and included huge banquets. For her 70th birthday in 1904, for example, Cixi spent 77,900 taels of silver on a new altar in the ancestral temple and on porcelain for the festivities and for presentation to court officials and ministers. The Empress Dowager liked to give presents of official porcelain as gifts and so in this reign unprecedented numbers of official porcelains entered private collections and were even sold on the open market. These were highly sought-after, and among the wealthy it was regarded as very chic to include a small number of items of imperial porcelain in a bride's dowry.
The imperial kiln had been burned down during the Taiping Rebellion in 1855, and was not rebuilt until 1866 under the Tongzhi reign, but by the Guangxu reign the Imperial kilns were fully functioning and porcelain production reached another peak. One of the characteristics of Guangxu production was an absence of copper red and a greater use of fine iron-red like that seen on the current vessels. The increased production in this period was encouraged by the Empress Dowager Cixi's lavish spending on porcelain. It was she who had engineered the Guangxu Emperor's accession to the throne, and she who ensured that ceremonies associated with his enthronement, as well as her own 50th, 60th and 70th birthdays were extremely ostentatious, and included huge banquets. For her 70th birthday in 1904, for example, Cixi spent 77,900 taels of silver on a new altar in the ancestral temple and on porcelain for the festivities and for presentation to court officials and ministers. The Empress Dowager liked to give presents of official porcelain as gifts and so in this reign unprecedented numbers of official porcelains entered private collections and were even sold on the open market. These were highly sought-after, and among the wealthy it was regarded as very chic to include a small number of items of imperial porcelain in a bride's dowry.