Lacquer Tea Bowl 乾隆禦制雕漆盞 (Qing dynasty (1644–1911), Qianlong reign mark and period (1736–1795)): Artwork and History

Lacquer Tea Bowl 乾隆禦制雕漆盞 (Qing dynasty (1644–1911), Qianlong reign mark and period (1736–1795)) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as China.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

This finely carved two-color lacquer tea bowl bears an inscription of a poem composed by Emperor Qianlong in 1746. The poem praises the “three purity tea” (sanqing cha), which consists of plum blossom petals, fingered citron and pine nuts, and must be brewed in melted snow water. According to imperial records, Emperor Qianlong often served sanqing tea during his renowned tea gatherings held in the palace during the New Year season. It was at one of these banquets that he wrote this poem. Although the same poem appears on many tea utensils made for the Emperor, lacquer pieces like this bowl are particularly rare due to the extensive time and effort required for their production.

Object facts

• Title: Lacquer Tea Bowl 乾隆禦制雕漆盞
• Date: Qing dynasty (1644–1911), Qianlong reign mark and period (1736–1795)
• Artist attribution: China
• Place of origin: China
• Medium: Cinnabar and black lacquer with carved decoration
• Dimensions: 5.6 × 10.9 cm (2 3/16 × 4 15/16 in.); Diam.: 10.9 cm (4 15/16 in.)
• Type: Vessel
• Department: Arts of Asia
• Reference number: 1888.165

Collection credit

Gift of Martin A. Ryerson and C. L. Hutchinson

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.