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Descriptif du lot
The present hanging panel, centered by a double-gourd bearing the characters Da ji 大吉(Great Auspiciousness) belongs to a group of festive furnishings made for display in the Qing court during the New Year and other major seasonal celebrations. The motif of the gourd, or hulu 葫蘆, carried multiple auspicious meanings. Its many seeds evoked the wish for abundant descendants, while its sound was closely associated with fulu 福祿 (blessings and emolument). The combination of Da ji and the double gourd therefore expressed a layered wish for good fortune, prosperity, and dynastic continuity, making it one of the most favored subjects in Qing imperial decorative art.
The practice of hanging Da ji gourd panels in the palace is well documented in the archives of the Imperial Workshops. A record dated to the 27th day of the 12th month of the 19th year of the Qianlong reign (1754) states that the previously made velvet-ground Shuangxi and Da ji gourd hanging panels need not be produced that year, but that in the following year a pair of each type should be made, with the grounds likewise worked in velvet and colored threads, and that the designs should first be drawn and submitted for imperial approval. This passage is especially revealing, as it shows that such festive furnishings were not merely decorative accessories, but objects designed through a formal court process: patterns were prepared by the Imperial Workshops, presented to the emperor, and only then executed.
A later entry from the 55th year of the Qianlong reign (1790) records the use of Da ji gourd hanging panels in the Ningshou Palace 寧壽宮, Leshou Hall 樂壽堂, Chonghua Palace 重華宫, and other court spaces. The same document notes that fifteen pairs of hanging panels required a total of 101 ruyi-form nails for installation. Such records confirm that these auspicious panels were displayed throughout the palace during the festive seasons. They also suggest that many examples, especially those made of textile, velvet, silk, or other delicate materials, were seasonal objects that may have been frequently replaced, explaining their rarity today.
The present panel may also be understood within the broader context of high-quality tribute works produced in Canton (modern day Guangzhou) during the Qianlong period. In Tributes from Guangdong to the Qing Court, Hong Kong, 1986, pp. 16–17, Yang Boda cites archival evidence that in the 59th year of the Qianlong reign (1794), the Viceroy of Guangdong and Guangxi, Changlin 兩廣總督長麟, presented to the court a pair of glass hanging panels decorated with the fushou pattern on the 20th day of the 7th month, and another pair of glass ‘antiques’ hanging panels on the 4th day of the 12th month. Yang further observes that the tribute lists and archives reveal the remarkable variety of Guangdong luxury production during the Qianlong period, when European paintings and decorative objects entered China through Canton and were distributed through the Thirteen Hongs 十三行 to major cities including Beijing and Yangzhou. This commercial and artistic environment encouraged Cantonese craftsmen to study imported European techniques, adapt them, and ultimately create new hybrid forms of luxurious decorative arts. Although the iconography of the present panel is largely Chinese, its decorative vocabulary reveals the cosmopolitan quality of Qing court taste. The floral ornament on the border, the scrolling gilt decoration, and the jewel-like use of colored glass beads recall the Baroque and Rococo-inspired ornament that entered China through Canton in the 18th century. At the same time, these elements are fully absorbed into an imperial Chinese auspicious composition: the double gourd, pendant jewels, canopy, ruyi forms, and the bold characters Da ji together create an image of festive abundance and courtly splendor.
The present panel employs a rich combination of materials and techniques. Given the complexity of its construction and the luxurious nature of its materials, it is not surprising that only a handful of such panels appear to have survived. A closely related example, formerly in the Qing court collection and now in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Ming and Qing Furniture in the Palace Museum-20-Screens, pp. 648–49, no. 182. Another comparable example was sold at Christie’s London, 9 November 2010, lot 237. (Fig. 1) Other forms of Da ji hanging panels were also fashionable at the Qing court. A set of eight gold double gourd-form Da ji panels in the Palace Museum, Beijing, demonstrates the enduring popularity of this auspicious subject in imperial palace decoration. Two panels from this set are illustrated by Zhang Yi, Kong Yanju, and Luo Han in “Scientific Analysis, Conservation and Restoration of Golden Gourd-Shaped Hanging Screens with Auspicious Patterns from the Qing Dynasty in the Palace Museum,” Journal of Gems & Gemology, issue 5, September 2024, fig. 1. Together, these surviving examples attest to the importance of Da ji gourd panels as festive imperial furnishings, combining auspicious symbolism, technical virtuosity, and the opulent visual language of the Qianlong court.
The practice of hanging Da ji gourd panels in the palace is well documented in the archives of the Imperial Workshops. A record dated to the 27th day of the 12th month of the 19th year of the Qianlong reign (1754) states that the previously made velvet-ground Shuangxi and Da ji gourd hanging panels need not be produced that year, but that in the following year a pair of each type should be made, with the grounds likewise worked in velvet and colored threads, and that the designs should first be drawn and submitted for imperial approval. This passage is especially revealing, as it shows that such festive furnishings were not merely decorative accessories, but objects designed through a formal court process: patterns were prepared by the Imperial Workshops, presented to the emperor, and only then executed.
A later entry from the 55th year of the Qianlong reign (1790) records the use of Da ji gourd hanging panels in the Ningshou Palace 寧壽宮, Leshou Hall 樂壽堂, Chonghua Palace 重華宫, and other court spaces. The same document notes that fifteen pairs of hanging panels required a total of 101 ruyi-form nails for installation. Such records confirm that these auspicious panels were displayed throughout the palace during the festive seasons. They also suggest that many examples, especially those made of textile, velvet, silk, or other delicate materials, were seasonal objects that may have been frequently replaced, explaining their rarity today.
The present panel may also be understood within the broader context of high-quality tribute works produced in Canton (modern day Guangzhou) during the Qianlong period. In Tributes from Guangdong to the Qing Court, Hong Kong, 1986, pp. 16–17, Yang Boda cites archival evidence that in the 59th year of the Qianlong reign (1794), the Viceroy of Guangdong and Guangxi, Changlin 兩廣總督長麟, presented to the court a pair of glass hanging panels decorated with the fushou pattern on the 20th day of the 7th month, and another pair of glass ‘antiques’ hanging panels on the 4th day of the 12th month. Yang further observes that the tribute lists and archives reveal the remarkable variety of Guangdong luxury production during the Qianlong period, when European paintings and decorative objects entered China through Canton and were distributed through the Thirteen Hongs 十三行 to major cities including Beijing and Yangzhou. This commercial and artistic environment encouraged Cantonese craftsmen to study imported European techniques, adapt them, and ultimately create new hybrid forms of luxurious decorative arts. Although the iconography of the present panel is largely Chinese, its decorative vocabulary reveals the cosmopolitan quality of Qing court taste. The floral ornament on the border, the scrolling gilt decoration, and the jewel-like use of colored glass beads recall the Baroque and Rococo-inspired ornament that entered China through Canton in the 18th century. At the same time, these elements are fully absorbed into an imperial Chinese auspicious composition: the double gourd, pendant jewels, canopy, ruyi forms, and the bold characters Da ji together create an image of festive abundance and courtly splendor.
The present panel employs a rich combination of materials and techniques. Given the complexity of its construction and the luxurious nature of its materials, it is not surprising that only a handful of such panels appear to have survived. A closely related example, formerly in the Qing court collection and now in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Ming and Qing Furniture in the Palace Museum-20-Screens, pp. 648–49, no. 182. Another comparable example was sold at Christie’s London, 9 November 2010, lot 237. (Fig. 1) Other forms of Da ji hanging panels were also fashionable at the Qing court. A set of eight gold double gourd-form Da ji panels in the Palace Museum, Beijing, demonstrates the enduring popularity of this auspicious subject in imperial palace decoration. Two panels from this set are illustrated by Zhang Yi, Kong Yanju, and Luo Han in “Scientific Analysis, Conservation and Restoration of Golden Gourd-Shaped Hanging Screens with Auspicious Patterns from the Qing Dynasty in the Palace Museum,” Journal of Gems & Gemology, issue 5, September 2024, fig. 1. Together, these surviving examples attest to the importance of Da ji gourd panels as festive imperial furnishings, combining auspicious symbolism, technical virtuosity, and the opulent visual language of the Qianlong court.