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Lot Essay
The inscription on the first bottle is taken from Sanqingcha, a poem composed by the Qianlong Emperor on the merits of drinking his "three scents tea" (Sanqingcha), which were of plum blossoms, finger citron and pine nuts.
The inscription has been translated by Ka Bo Tsang as:
"The color of prunus blossoms is not bewitching.
The Buddha's hand citron is fragrant and clean.
Pine nuts have an agreeable scent and rich flavor.
All three are exceedingly pure.
[I] boil them in a tea-warmer with short curved legs.
Pouring in snow gathered in a bamboo basket.
[I] judge by the intensity of the heat by the [sizes] of the bubbles,
[whether they resemble the eyes of] a fish [or] a crab.
The steam now rising, now dissipating from the pot.
Into a Yue ware bowl [I] pour a milky liquid [fit for] the immortals.
Sitting on a felt rug beside the tea stove I am filled with
The joy of the mystic trance.
[My heart is at] peace when the five substances are purified.
[This experience] can only be felt; it cannot be described.
As the fragrant cotton-white [liquid] is passed around,
The bubbly nectar-like fluid becomes clear.
[What the immortal] Woquan inadvertently left behind,
[we mortals] can feed on.
[The prunus we now enjoy are] different from those
the poet Lin Bu once admired.
Too lazy to lift the tray made in Zhaozhou.
[I] cannot help laughing at Yuchuan's artfulness.
In [this] chilly night [I] listen to the sound of the clepsydra.
Under the ancient moon [I] gaze at the jade girdle pendant.
Feeling relaxed and ful, [I] take advantage of this leisure moment,
To chant [a few verses] to my heart's content.
It has been mentioned that the Qianlong Emperor was an avid drinker of tea, and in the 11th year of his reign (1746) on his return from visiting Mount Wutai, Shanxi province, his entourage sojourned to make tea using fallen snow. In the brew, as well as Longjing tea leaves, were the additions of prunus, pine nut kernels and finger citrus. It was this concoction that inspired the Emperor to compose the present poem.
A range of Imperial porcelains, mostly teapots and tea-trays, were enameled with this subject during the Qianlong reign, but the poem continued in use on snuff bottles during the nineteenth century. See a similar bottle, also with formalized lingzhi reserved on a blue ground, illustrated by J. Ford, Chinese Snuff Bottles. The Edward Choate O'Dell Collection, no. 170. Another is illustrated in The Au Hang Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles, p. 198, no. 269.
The inscription has been translated by Ka Bo Tsang as:
"The color of prunus blossoms is not bewitching.
The Buddha's hand citron is fragrant and clean.
Pine nuts have an agreeable scent and rich flavor.
All three are exceedingly pure.
[I] boil them in a tea-warmer with short curved legs.
Pouring in snow gathered in a bamboo basket.
[I] judge by the intensity of the heat by the [sizes] of the bubbles,
[whether they resemble the eyes of] a fish [or] a crab.
The steam now rising, now dissipating from the pot.
Into a Yue ware bowl [I] pour a milky liquid [fit for] the immortals.
Sitting on a felt rug beside the tea stove I am filled with
The joy of the mystic trance.
[My heart is at] peace when the five substances are purified.
[This experience] can only be felt; it cannot be described.
As the fragrant cotton-white [liquid] is passed around,
The bubbly nectar-like fluid becomes clear.
[What the immortal] Woquan inadvertently left behind,
[we mortals] can feed on.
[The prunus we now enjoy are] different from those
the poet Lin Bu once admired.
Too lazy to lift the tray made in Zhaozhou.
[I] cannot help laughing at Yuchuan's artfulness.
In [this] chilly night [I] listen to the sound of the clepsydra.
Under the ancient moon [I] gaze at the jade girdle pendant.
Feeling relaxed and ful, [I] take advantage of this leisure moment,
To chant [a few verses] to my heart's content.
It has been mentioned that the Qianlong Emperor was an avid drinker of tea, and in the 11th year of his reign (1746) on his return from visiting Mount Wutai, Shanxi province, his entourage sojourned to make tea using fallen snow. In the brew, as well as Longjing tea leaves, were the additions of prunus, pine nut kernels and finger citrus. It was this concoction that inspired the Emperor to compose the present poem.
A range of Imperial porcelains, mostly teapots and tea-trays, were enameled with this subject during the Qianlong reign, but the poem continued in use on snuff bottles during the nineteenth century. See a similar bottle, also with formalized lingzhi reserved on a blue ground, illustrated by J. Ford, Chinese Snuff Bottles. The Edward Choate O'Dell Collection, no. 170. Another is illustrated in The Au Hang Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles, p. 198, no. 269.