A RARE CHINESE BAMBOO GILT AND LACQUERED SCHOLAR'S TEAPOT AND COVER

YONGZHENG/QIANLONG

The compressed circular body with a loop handle and spout, with gilt ruyi-heads centred by red lacquer encircling the rim, the cover decorated with two flowers set amidst stylised leafy tendrils and delicate scrollwork, the recessed base incised Jiezhai zao which can be translated as 'made in the studio of restraint', 12.1cm. (2)

Cf. Christie's Hong Kong, 2nd December 2015, lot 3139 for another bamboo root teapot and cover with this mark; see also Bonhams Hong Kong, 28th November 2011, lot 250 for a Yongzheng Yixing inkstone and lacquer box decorated with comparable gilt scrolls.

The lacquer decoration on this unusual bamboo teapot is comparable to that on Japanese lacquer pieces, particularly the delicate scrollwork to the cover and band of foliage resembling karakusa scrolls. The Yongzheng Emperor is known to have greatly admired Japanese works of art and aesthetics, and he was especially fond of Japanese maki-e lacquer with gold decoration. There were a large number of Japanese maki-e pieces in the collection of the Qing court. However, the Yongzheng Emperor's appreciation for Japanese lacquer led him not only to collect pieces made in Japan, but also to order imitation works from domestic Imperial workshops. Yongzheng is believed to have been the first Qing emperor to commission such imitation pieces, and this was to be continued by his son the Qianlong Emperor. These imitation pieces appear to have been valued as equal to rather than inferior to authentic Japanese examples. Aside from pure imitations, Yongzheng also encouraged the application of Japanese lacquerware designs on other media, including porcelain and enamel. An enamelled gilt-copper inro-style case produced in the Qing court workshops and now in the National Palace Museum collection is one example of these kind of pieces produced under the Yongzheng Emperor's reign.

For a more in-depth discussion on Japanese lacquer in 18th century China, see K Kleutghen, Imports and Imitations: The Taste for Japanese Lacquer in Eighteenth-Century China and France, Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies, vol.17, no.2, Spring 2017, pp.175-206.