Cloisonné decorated jar景泰藍瓷壇 (Croydon)

February 22, 2013 • 1:14 pm

London, a world city in 20 objects: Cloisonné decorated jar

Jessica Harrison-Hall, British Museum

Cloisonné decorated jar

Philanthropic Londoners are supporting the Evening Standard’s campaigns to encourage London primary school children to read more and to find young adults work through apprenticeship schemes. This culture of selfless giving is a vital part of London life. Visitors to the British Museum have benefited greatly from this generosity, which manifests itself in new buildings, refurbished galleries and acquisitions of new objects.
Jimmy Riesco (1877-1964) from Croydon was one such benefactor. He collected Chinese art and bequeathed his collection of Chinese ceramics to his home town, where it is now on display in the Riesco Gallery in the Museum of Croydon. This magnificent cloisonné jar, a testimony to the quality of Chinese craftsmanship, was once in his collection. It is decorated with powerful dragons with snake-like bodies and horns flying through the clouds.
Cloisonné is a method of decorating metal objects with a network of wire cells. Cloisonné wares are particularly time-consuming and labour-intensive to make. Craftsmen sketch a design onto a metal jar using a brush and black ink. Wires are cut out of sheet copper and fixed to the body of the jar, forming cells. The cells are filled with multicoloured opaque glass, which produces a brightly coloured surface. The jar is then fired in a kiln at about 600 degrees centigrade. After firing, the jar cools and the glass shrinks. Any gaps in the design are filled in and the jar is refired. This process is repeated up to four times. Finally the jar is polished and the metal wires gilded.
From two inscriptions around the rim of this jar, we know who commissioned it and where it was made. Zhu Zhanji (1399-1435), the Ming Emperor from 1426 to 1435, commissioned it and eunuchs in the Forbidden City Palace in Beijing supervised its manufacture. Ming Emperors ordered such brightly coloured objects to decorate the vast halls of their palaces. The magnificent dragons were symbolic of the emperor. As you can see from walking around Chinatown today, dragons continue to be a powerful symbol of good luck.
There is only one other jar like this one in the world. It is in Switzerland in the Reitburg Museum, on loan from a private collection. Originally the two jars would probably have been displayed together in the Forbidden City Palace. The British Museum plans to reunite the jars in an exhibition beginning in September 2014, which will show the splendour of early Ming courts and the extraordinary connections that Ming China established with the rest of the world.

This was first published in the London Evening Standard on 11 October 2012.
The Cloisonné decorated jar is on display in Room 33: Asia

Croydon 規模已近"市"級而不是小鎮

倫敦小鎮驚現稀世明代御用景泰藍

更新時間 2013年4月21日, 格林尼治標準時間22:23

世界上已知明宣德帝御用景泰藍瓷壇僅兩件。

英國倫敦南郊不起眼小鎮克羅伊頓（Croydon）的當地博物館中竟然被發現收藏有一件稀世的明朝宣德皇帝朱瞻基御用景泰藍瓷壇（Cloisonne jar）。

據大英博物館專家介紹說，這件由已故瓷器收藏家里斯科（Reginald F.A. Riesco）收藏的珍品早在1964年便依遺囑捐給克羅伊頓博物館。

收藏者里斯科1877年生人，因從事保險生意曾長期往返於歐洲和遠東之間。 據信，展覽在克羅伊頓博物館中的景泰藍瓶就是他在一次遠東之行時購得的。
這件稀世瑰寶和里斯科生前收集的大量中國瓷器後來就長期在克羅伊頓小鎮博物館的角落裏「積累塵埃」。
據大英博物館專家介紹說，宣德御用景泰藍瓷壇在世上現知僅存二個，克羅伊頓鎮博物館收藏的正是其中之一。
另一件由私人收藏的宣德御用景泰藍瓷壇目前在瑞士利特伯格博物館（Rietberg Museum）展出，明年九月也將被「請」到倫敦，讓一對舊日明宮「孿生」禦器終能久別重逢。
盛世瑰寶
兩件宣德景泰藍瓷壇均鑲繪有彩雲騰龍圖案，據信應為北京紫禁城內的一對宮廷裝飾品。
據悉，上述兩件明宮景泰藍瑰寶將成為明年九月大英博物館將舉辦的名為「明朝：宮廷與交往 1400-1450」的明朝瓷器大展的核心展品。

大明宣德皇帝朱瞻基坐像局部。

1400-1450大致涵括明朝建文、永樂、洪熙、宣德、正統直至景泰等數朝。
負責組織明朝瓷器大展的大英博物館中國和越南收藏品研究員傑西卡·哈里森·豪爾表示，當今世界越來越意識到了解中國的重要性，而了解明朝15世紀上半葉與東亞、南亞、東南亞、中東和非洲的關係與交流對於更好認識今日中國十分重要。
專家指出，明永樂至宣德朝期間可以說是經過明初動蕩後的盛世；當時的中國在政治、經濟、文化、軍事和對外交流各方面都富有成就，並曾在遠東和近東有著舉足輕重影響。
預定明年九月在大英博物館的明朝瓷器展覽除上述景泰藍精品外，還將有大量永樂和宣德年間的明瓷、雕漆和金銀飾精品。
宣德瓷壇
據大英博物館的網頁介紹說，中國明代的工匠採用拜占庭工匠的景泰藍製作技巧，並於15世紀早期改進了這項技術。
博物館人員從瓷壇頸部題字看出瓷壇是御用匠師們為宣德皇帝打造的。
明代景德鎮的工匠們製作的青花瓷，其形狀和裝飾與皇家工廠出品的瓷器一模一樣。宣德皇帝很可能下令在紫禁城內使用這種瓷壇。
景泰藍瓷器的製作耗時且費用高昂。工匠用金屬絲在青銅器皿上勾勒出矯健的龍和雲紋後，再用玻璃漿填充。用景泰藍工藝標記的六字標識是宣德瓷器的特徵。