A RARE CHINESE IMPERIAL CLOISONNE AND CHAMPLEVE ENAMEL 'BIRTHDAY' BOWL

A RARE CHINESE IMPERIAL CLOISONNE AND CHAMPLEVE ENAMEL 'BIRTHDAY' BOWL
QIANLONG 1736-95

The heavily-cast body with rounded sides rising to a gently everted rim above a short straight foot, decorated with four blue-ground medallions each enclosing the characters wan shou wu jiang (long life without end) in gilt seal script, reserved against a turquoise ground with trailing formal lotus between a band of lappets above the foot and a kui-dragon border below the rim, the interior and the foot gilt, the base with a four-character zi sun yong bao (treasured forever by sons and grandsons) mark within a square double-line border, 1kg, 16.8cm.

Provenance: Hinton Daniell Stewart (1835-1926) of Strathgarry, Perthshire, founder of the firm of Stewart Thompson and Sons (Manchester Cotton Merchants), and thence by descent.

A series of bowls with this decorative scheme, centred on the characters wan shou wu jiang in zuanshu script, were commissioned in the 45th year of the Qianlong reign (1780) to celebrate the 70th birthday of the Emperor, according to Qing court records. The decoration is rich in auspicious features appropriate for an Imperial birthday service that go beyond the characters themselves. The scrolling lotus branches, for instance, reference the wish for a long continuation of the Imperial lineage. The mark on the base, an archaistic reference to those found on early Western Zhou bronzes, is also imbued with the notion of longevity. The character bao (treasure) is particularly rich semantically, incorporating pictorial references to the Imperial throne as well as the notion of wealth, with its up-turned arc at the base of the character recalling the shape of old Chinese gold currency. It is understood that the Qianlong Emperor was personally involved in the design of this service, and would have directly overseen the decoration and inscriptions chosen for these objects. Examples can be seen today in the Staatliche Museum, Berlin, accession no.OAS1959-226, in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, accession nos.41.53.1A-F, in the Clague collection, illustrated in C Brown, Chinese Cloisonné: The Clague Collection, pp.122-23, pl.56, and in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Classics of the Forbidden City: Enamels in the Collection of the Palace Museum, p.197, no.181. An example of a contemporary carved lacquer storage box complete with pieces from this service is also held in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Classics of the Forbidden City: The Imperial Packing Art of the Qing Dynasty, p.156-157.

清乾隆 御製銅胎掐絲琺瑯鏨刻萬壽無彊纏枝蓮紋盤
《大清乾隆年製》楷書刻款
來源：英國蘇格蘭佩斯郡斯特拉斯加里， Hinton Daniell Stewart（1835-1926）收藏，Hinton是曼徹斯特棉業公司Stewart Thompson的創始人，之後由其後人繼承。