Painted by fire: Jean Theodore Royer's Chinese enameled plaques; Part II: the copper plaques

Magazine Antiques, March, 2004 by Jan van Campen

(16) See van Campen, "Painted by Fire," pp. 78-79, for a discussion of the roles of women.

(17) The inscriptions on the banderole read "huan chen" and "xi yuan zhuren ti." Guest quarters were always situated on the western side of a house. I am grateful to to Koos Kuiper for his help.

(18) Wolfram Eberhard, A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols: Hidden Symbols in Chinese Life and Thought (Routledge, London and New York, 1986); and Charles A. S. Williams, Outlines of Chinese Symbolism and Art Motives (Dover Publications, New York, 1976).

(19) I am grateful to Peter Poldervaart, paper conservator at the Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, for his observations about the paper.

(20) For more on the subject, see Jan J. M. de Groot, The Religious System of China (Leiden, 1892), vol. 1, part 1, pp. 140-149; and Death Ritual in Late Imperial and Modern China, ed. James L. Watson and Evelyn Sakakida Rawski (University of California Press, Berkeley, 1988). I am grateful to Koos Kuiper for his translation and for suggesting these sources.

(21) A. Qing is a name often found in Canton.

(22) One is illustrated in Roger Soame Jenyns and William Watson. Chinese Art: The Minor Arts, Gold, Silver, Bronze, Cloisonne, Cantonese Enamel, Lacquer, Furniture, Wood (New York Universe Books, New York, 1963), No. 112 (also illustrated in H. Blairman and Sons, Fumiture and Works of Art [H. Blairman and Sons, London, 1997], pp. 2-3). For others, see Europa und die Kaiser von China, ed. Hendrik Budde et al. (Berliner Festspiele, Berlin, 1985), No. 7/25 (not illustrated); David Sanctuary Howard, A Tale of Three Cities: Canton, Shanghai and Hong Kong: Three Centuries of Sino-British Trade in the Decorative Arts [Sotheby's, London, c. 1997], No. 201; Jan Wirgin, Fran Kina till Europa: kinesiska konstforemal fran de ostindiska kompaniernas tid (Ostasiastiska Museet, Stockholm, 1998), No. 262. These plaques are believed to have come to the West with a great number of other art objects after the Summer Palace was plundered in 1860 and again in 1900. None of them, however, has a cutout in the copperplate with a view through to a background painted on paper. I know of only four other plaques that employ this technique: a pair sold by A. and J. Speelman Oriental Art in October 2002 and a pair sold by Christie's, London, on April 5, 1976. I am grateful to Kee Il Choi for bringing the Speelman plaques to my attention and to Anna Jackson of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London for the pair sold by Christie's.

(23) For examples, see Gillingham, Chinese Painted Enamels, No. 118; Spink and Son, Summer Exhibition of Chinese Art (Spink, London, 1999), No. 32.

(24) Illustrated in Musee du Petit Palais, La Cite interdite: vie publique et privee des empereurs de Chine (1644-1911) (Paris-Musees, Paris, 1996), Nos. 115 and 116.

(25) Illustrated in Hong Kong Museum of History et al., Nanhai hai shang jiao ... /The Maritime Silk Route: Two Thousand Years of Trade on the South China Sea (Xianggang shi zheng ju, Xianggang, 1996), No. 5.77. With thanks to Christiaan J. A. Jorg for this reference.