A rare pair of Imperial gilt-bronze and jade-inset lanterns

Qianlong

Footnotes

清乾隆 銅鎏金鏨花嵌碧玉吊燈一對

Provenance:
Bluett & Sons, Ltd., London
An English private collection, acquired from the above on 20 December 1955, and thence by descent

來源：
倫敦古董商Bluett & Sons, Ltd.
英國私人收藏，於1955年12月20日購於以上來源，後由家族繼承

The inscription on the lantern decorated with landscapes, may be translated as follows:

Circular panel:
'At leisure after my official duty, I wear a cloak trimmed with crane's down, put on a Daoist cap and hold in my hand a volume of the Book of Changes, and then burn incense and sit in silence to pass away the time without anxiety. Besides the river and hills, the things I see are only the sails of boats, birds on the sands, the mist, clouds, bamboo and trees. When I recover from the strength of the wine and after I stop drinking tea and burning incense, I say goodbye to the setting sun and welcome the white moon. These are also pleasantries during the period of my banishment.
Inscribed by the Emperor in the Qianlong period.'

Oblong panel:
'The mist vanished; the characters can be seen.
The moss has fallen off; the texts appear.
The writings are like the waves under the moonlight;
the literary piece is as bright as metal in the sunshine.
It makes known the ancestral line traced back for eight thousand years,
and also the high reputation of the last three generations.
Some are ever-happily married, as happy as male and female birds.
Others were famous artists depicting the clouds and the frost.
Inscribed by the Emperor in the Qianlong period'.

The inscription on the lantern decorated with a bamboo grove can be translated as follows:

Circular panel:
'He did not consider the high official mansion with the large flag as his glory, nor the Huan-kui (a jade tablet which as a token was conferred upon a Duke) and the ceremonial embroidered robe as the symbols of his nobility. He was only interested in his virtuous conduct which would benefit the people, his meritorious acts which would benefit the nation, and these achievements would be recorded on the metal and stone tablets and praised in poems and songs to dazzle the future generations for ever and ever, and that was his ambition and the scholars expected him to have this ambition. So his outlook or aim was not limited to a little glory in a tiny market town.'

Oblong panel:
'When it was stone, it was as small as one's fist.
When it has been fashioned into an article, its beauty is not due to the one-hundred processes of refining
It is described in green characters in a book which is kept in a jade box with a golden thread.
The rocks (from which the stone was hewn) from the hills of various sizes are small; the greenness of the fragrant trees there is not beautiful.'

The two poems on the circular panels were extracted from two separate prose works by the Song dynasty scholars Ouyang Xiu (1007-1072) and Wang Yucheng (954-1001) respectively, and demonstrate the Qianlong Emperor's breadth of knowledge of literary sources as well as his admiration and respect for past scholars. The subjects of the poems relate to matters which would have concerned the emperor: the pleasure of an idealised retreat only to be enjoyed after the completion of the official duties; the ancestral legacy, with the reference to the last three generations possibly to be interpreted in the light of the first three Qing Emperors leading to the Qianlong Emperor; and the pursuit of virtuous conduct and meritorious actions for the benefit of the nation rather than the aggrandisement of the individual.

The Imperial palaces were lit with lanterns made of various prized materials including gilt-bronze, cloisonné and champlevé enamel, woods, glass, horn and jade. These would have adorned throne rooms and Imperial halls and private quarters; compare a related pair of gilt-bronze, cloisonné enamel and glass lanterns, in the Yangxin dian, 'Hall of Mental Cultivation', illustrated in Classics of the Forbidden City: Imperial Furniture of Ming and Qing Dynasties, Beijing,2007, p.339, no.372.

The superb and lavish craftsmanship of the lanterns is exemplified in the complex gilt-bronze openwork moonflask form, possibly used in relation to the moon mentioned in the prose, set against the lavish red fabric, framing the incised and gilt jade panels. The form of the lanterns and the use of inscribed poems indicate that the lanterns would have been placed on a table or stand, possibly within Imperial private quarters rather than a public hall.

Compare a related pair of champlevé enamel and jade 'pagoda-form' lanterns, Qianlong, which was sold at Christie's New York, 20 October 2004, lot 451.

此對宮燈所嵌碧玉上的題詩取自唐宋時期之詩詞歌賦，包括宋王禹偁《黃州新建小竹樓記》、宋歐陽修《相州晝錦堂記》、唐薛存誠《仙石靈台賦》、唐李程《石鏡賦》以及唐喬潭《群玉山賦》，題詩所對應的玉璧上則陰刻描金山水亭台人物圖。燈身銅胎鎏金，配以鏨花及鏤空如意紋、卷草紋、朵花、蕉葉、蓮花等。燈內中空，燈頂有三金屬鍊用以懸掛。紋飾繁複、裝飾華麗。

此類吊燈用於清宮內廷中宮殿的照明。清宮中所用吊燈形制及材質多樣，大多用銅、木、玻璃、牙、角等作裝飾。如八代帝居的養心殿中，即懸吊一對銅鎏金鏨胎嵌玻璃吊燈，見《故宮經典：故宮明式家具圖典》，北京，2007年，頁339，編號372。

參見紐約佳士得曾售出一對清乾隆銅鎏金鏨胎琺瑯嵌玉塔式吊燈，2004年10月20日，拍品編號451。