Footnotes

• Treasury 6, no. 1289
  
  青花八寶鼻煙壺
  景德鎮，青花「鏡春園製」楷書款，1821～1850
  
  A blue and white porcelain 'Buddhist emblems' snuff bottle
  
  Colourless glaze on cobalt on porcelain; with a slightly convex lip and recessed flat foot surrounded by a protruding, convex footrim; painted under the glaze with a similar oval panel on each main side of the Eight Buddhist Emblems, the panels surrounded by a continuous design of interlinked sauvastikas and swastikas (wan symbols), the neck with a band of formalized lingzhi and dots; the lip with three formalized bats facing inwards towards the mouth; the foot inscribed in regular script Jingchun yuan zhi ('Made for the Garden of Mirrored Spring'); the lip, inner neck, and interior glazed
  Jingdezhen, 1821–1850
  Height: 5.68 cm
  Mouth/lip: 0.70/1.64 cm
  Stopper: glass, carved with a coiled chi dragon; glass collar
  
  Condition:
  Several areas of glaze nibbling to the outer lip area and surface abrasions all over from use; two small burst glaze bubbles, part of the original firing process
  
  Provenance:
  John Ault, June 2005
  Robert Kleiner, June 2005
  
  Published:
  Treasury 6, no. 1289
  
  This is the only recorded snuff bottle bearing the name of this garden, but people who have recently visited the campus of Peking University may recognize it as the site of the newly opened Beijing International Centre for Mathematical Research. The garden first acquired the name on this snuff bottle in 1802, when it was given to the Jiaqing emperor's fourth daughter. The western part of the garden was given to his fifth son about the same time; it was named Minghe yuan (Garden of the Crying Crane) and was much larger. In 1896, the Jingchun yuan was folded into the larger garden, but the overall site fell into ruins until after 1949. (See Hou, Wang, and Gallagher 2008, pp. 57 – 74, for a detailed account.)
  
  Although the design is the common Eight Buddhist Emblems, consisting of the wheel of the Law, conch shell, umbrella, canopy, lotus, jar, fish, and eternal knot, their arrangement is unique and very clever. The fish have been doubled, as so often in Chinese depictions, and some of the others are relatively obvious, such as the eternal knot, the wheel of the law, and the canopy. Others are not so obvious. The umbrella and canopy have been combined to give the umbrella a long skirt, and the conch shell is its finial. The whole design has the shape of a vase, the two fish forming its sides, the wheel its center, the canopy its neck, the umbrella its lid, and the conch the knob on the lid, while the base consists of a series of lotus-petal tips. The two flowers on either side of the neck may also be intended to be read as lotus flowers. The continuous design of fylfots or wan symbols in which the panels are set adds a wish for longevity because of its continuous, unending nature, but also because it stands for the character meaning ten thousand (wan). The lingzhi around the neck, formalized as ruyi heads, symbolize wish fulfilment (as ever) and the three bats (fu), happiness.
  
  青花八寶鼻煙壺
  
  瓷胎鈷料上無色釉；微凸唇，平斂底，突出凸圈足；釉下兩正面繪佛教八寶，隙地繪斜卍字不斷紋，頸部繪如意雲頭紋及圓點一周， 唇有三隻蝙蝠，底書青花"鏡春園製"橢圓雙框橫向楷款；唇、頸內、內壁皆施釉;
  景德鎮， 1821–1850
  高﹕ 5.68 厘米
  口徑/唇徑： 0.70/1.64 厘米
  蓋﹕玻璃，雕蟠螭; 玻璃座
  
  狀態敘述：唇外沿有幾處呈咬痕，經過歲月的使用以後，壺表面全體呈擦傷，有兩道破綻的小氣泡，是燒製程序所致
  
  來源:
  John Ault,2005年6月
  Robert Kleiner, 2005年6月
  
  文獻﹕
  Treasury 6, 編號 1289
  
  已知帶鏡春園款的鼻煙壺只有這一件。最近訪問北京大學的同仁可能會知道鏡春園故址是北京國際數學研究中心的所在地。原來的春熙園1802年就分為鳴鶴園和鏡春園，後者小，是嘉慶皇帝第四女兒的居所。到了1896年，兩個園再合起來了，1949年以後就成廢墟。詳細，參閱侯仁之、王明珠、Meg Gallagher 2008, 頁 57 – 74。
  
  本壺的主題是常用見的輪、螺、傘、蓋、瓶、魚、蓮、盤長之佛教八寶， 可是有很多巧妙的形狀的調節。

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Category: Asian Art / Chinese Works of Art

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