18TH CENTURY

This boldy painted jardinière is decorated with a rare procession of foreign and Chinese tribute bearers riding on animals or mythical animals. The scene unrolls like a scroll around the vessel. There are four different vignettes, each capturing a pair of tribute bearers. One vignette depicts a Westerner with a flat hat riding a ram and holding an umbrella over his head and a small western clock in the other. He glances back at his foreign companion who rides on an elephant and holds a pagoda over his head that emits a cloud-like elixir filled with a procession of abstract walking figures. The other figures depict Chinese and European figures riding animals such as deer and horses, and mythical beasts such as a kylin or a horse with scales, all with various tributes held on trays.

The source of the scene on the present jardinière is unknown, but the imagery of foreigners paying tribute to the imperial Qing court was an auspicious theme that is found on 18th-century porcelain and works of art. The Kangxi emperor was particularly interested in European innovations and technical knowledge, especially clocks, which were made in China in the European style with European timepieces, and also made in Europe for gifts to the emperor. Tribute scenes also found popularity in court paintings, such as the anonymous hanging scroll, 'Envoys from Vassal States and Foreign Countries Presenting Tribute to the Emperor', in the Palace Museum Collection, illustrated in Paintings by Court Artists of the Qing Court, The Complete Collection of the Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1996, pp. 240-241, no. 64.