The Nanjing Museum's "Precision and Beauty - Exhibition of Clocks and Watches from the Academy" can be said to be the most interesting exhibition hall, and the Watch Hall of the Forbidden City in Beijing is also a must-see for those who go to the Forbidden City. If you've been to the watch halls of these two museums, you're bound to have the idea of "this sister I've seen before," and oh no, it's supposed to be the same treasure I've seen.
Because the Qing Dynasty court clocks and watches collected by the Nanjing Museum are a batch of palace cultural relics left in Nanjing when the cultural relics of the Forbidden City moved south, it is not unusual that those clocks that were originally pairs of children, one stayed in the Forbidden City, one stayed in Nanbo.
In the twenty-ninth year of the Ming Dynasty (1601), the Italian missionary Li matteo offered two self-chiming bells to the Forbidden City, not only to walk and dot, but also birds and children to dance, chirp, and the music sounded, and the bo people laughed. Since then, the Western clock has become an elegant entertainment tool for the court. These exquisite clocks and watches exhibited by the Nanjing Museum include the works of famous artists such as Britain, France, Germany and Switzerland, as well as the fine works produced by the "Manufacturing Office" of the Qing Palace and The domestic Guangdong, Suzhou and other places.
Qingqianlong Inlaid enamel turned bird to open the lotus pot, and the Qing Palace built the office
The surface of the cylinder is made of glass mirrors as a tranquil water surface, the central water birds are surrounded by a circle, and the lotus pond landscape is arranged in the cylinder, and there are three lotus flowers. In the center of the lotus flower sat a child. After the start, accompanied by music, the water birds are pulled by the mechanical copper rings connected in the cylinder and rotated, as if playing on the surface of the water. The towbar in the lotus stalk is mechanically acted upon, and the petals open and bloom.
This piece of the Forbidden City is very similar, the name is called copper gilded inlaid enamel turn duck lotus cylinder clock.
The abdomen of the cylinder is decorated with flower butterfly patterns, and the upper and lower mouth edges are cloud head patterns and seawater patterns. The dial is on the front of the abdomen, surrounded by red and green stones. The same cylinder surface is a glass mirror to show the quiet water surface, with ducks in the center in a circle and several lotus flowers scattered in a staggered manner. Three of the lotus flowers can be opened and closed, and in the center of the flower sit the Queen Mother of the West, the peach boy, and the peach fairy ape. After the start, with the accompaniment of the music, the petals open, revealing the West Queen Mother, the Boy, and the Fairy Ape in the heart of the flower, the West Queen Mother sits still, and the boy and the white ape kneel and worship in the form of a peach.
Qingqianlong Copper gilded birdcage clock
The Birdcage Clock was made by London's most famous company, James Cox, to cater to the Chinese market. The clocks produced by James Cox have always been the object of fanatical pursuit of the emperors and kings of Europe and Asia and the major museums. There is a bronze gilded birdcage bell in the Forbidden City and the Nanjing Museum, which is designated as a first-class collection by the Forbidden City.
The birdcage bell is surrounded by palm trees symbolizing victory, woven with copper gilded wire. At the top of the cage is a turnout, which is divided into two layers. The center of the birdcage is a spiral tower of red and green stone, with bird feeding tanks hanging on both sides, gilded cylinders and goblets that can be opened and closed, and a spring crossbar on which a bird stands.
The machine starts, the bird turns left and right, spreads its wings and tail, jumps back and forth on two crossbars, and emits different chirps. With the sound of music, the cylinder inside the cage opens, and there is a water method rotating inside, resembling a waterfall, and the treasure star flowers at the top are staggered and rotated, shining brightly.
The James Cox Company delivered to China many masterpieces of watches produced by jaquet Droz's London watch factory, pierre Jaquet Droz was praised for his exquisite watchmaking and enamel skills, and his production of "moving dolls" and "over-the-top songbirds" bells almost became important indicators of the diplomatic level of a mission and the importance of its mission.
Copper gilded flowers chime through the branches of the bird cage bell - forbidden city collection
A rough estimate is that between 1781 and 1810 Jaquet-Droz sold about 650 products, two-thirds of which were sold to China, including watches, snuff bottles, perfume bottles and shrines, all sold in pairs. Yakdro products became a very favorite personal collection of the dignitaries and dignitaries at that time, of course, the largest collector was the Qianlong Emperor, who had always been very fond of Western treasures. According to the "Jindan" in the first historical archive of China, the pair of bird cage bells were presented to the Qianlong Emperor on August 3, 1785 by the Guangdong customs supervisor Mu Teng'e. When Qianlong Ye saw it, he was overjoyed, and immediately gave him the name Yak Deluo, "Ya" and "De" were words that Qianlong liked very much, and "Luo" came from the royal family name "Ai Xin Jue Luo".
Shanzi Bird Sound Water Law Clock
The Toritoshi Yamako Water Clock is a bell produced in France in the 19th century.
Imitating the natural landscape style clock, the base is covered with mountain stones and plum trees, and there is a lake in front of the mountain stone, and the swan swims in it. The bell is embedded in a mountain stone. On the right stand two white plum trees, butterflies and kingfishers fly in the big trees, and the machinery that controls the activity is hidden in the trunk, pulling two birds to fly between the trees, one bird flapping its wings as a swoop, and the butterflies dancing. A red bird stands on a small tree, and a set of machinery drives it to turn its head and chirp. In front of the tree, a glass water pillar rotates like a stream, and a kingfisher drinks water with its head bowed by the stream.
The difference between the same model in the Forbidden City is that there is still red velvet on the base, an extra white duck, an extra kingfisher on the big plum tree, and the flowers of the plum tree are pink and yellow, as well as the color of the kingfisher feathers and leaves that swoop down.
Qingqianlong Copper gilded inlaid colored material stone man rings the clock, made in England
This one in the Forbidden City is exactly the same, the name is "copper gilded moon top man playing clock", which do you think is better?
The base of the bell is surrounded by a hollow pattern and material stones, and the inside is a music box with mechanical devices. On the music box stands a bell ringer, with nine bell bowls on each side in front of him, each with a different scale. Behind the bell ringer is a three-pin clock supported by four curling columns, and the two small plates on the clock plate are the minute disc and the second disc. The dial is surrounded by red and yellow stones, and the pendulum full of stone hangs under the dial.
The sunflower-shaped flower is at the top of the bell, and the sphere in the center of the flower represents the moon, with white material stones embedded in half and blue material stones embedded in the other half (the Forbidden City exhibition map is adjusted to all white). There are 15 inlay stone meridians on it, and the clock turns one line every 24 hours.
This clock can play the profit and loss process of the month. On the first day of the lunar calendar (the first day of the first month), the moon turns from left to right, and the half of the blue stone is gradually turned to the back, and the blue side of the looking day (fifteenth day) completely turns to the back, at this time the moon seen from the front is white, just like a full moon; conversely, on the obscure day (thirty days) the moon is blue. This clock can also be exchanged for music.
The only difference is in the part between the clock and the top, the white trumpet flower embellished by the Forbidden City, and the Nanbo one is thought to be missing.
Qing Guangxu Wooden Building Pavilion Style Top Four Sides Of the Clock
The bell has a clock plate on all four sides, hence the name. This clock is activated by a set of movements, which can tell the time and the tick. The four-sided clock plate panel is very delicate, and the pattern is the story of the immortals wishing for life, the fairy riding the phoenix, the Jiangnan lotus picking, etc., which is a representative work of the Suzhou hammer flower panel. The bell top has an octagonal pavilion, and the hall is decorated with dragon play beads. The center of the ceiling inside the pavilion is a Tai Chi Bagua diagram, surrounded by eight painted flowers in the interior of the open light.
Wooden four-sided pavilion bell - Forbidden City collection
Qing copper gilded deer riding clock, made in England in the 18th century
The lower part of the bell is a music box, and the front of the music box is a self-opening door on the second floor, and the scenery is painted on the door. When the doors of the first floor are opened, rural landscapes and activists are presented; when the doors of the second floor are opened, a clown performance is presented. On the platform of the music box, there are tower-shaped and umbrella-shaped turns that can change four colors. In the middle of the platform, a male deer stands in the center, with a flower embedded in the deer's belly, a pair of foreign beasts on the deer's back, and the oval clock on the back of the deer. It is centered on a two-pin clock plate and surrounded by shiny stones. The upper top is a conical spiral.
The name of this one in the Forbidden City is "Copper Gilded Deer Driving Flower Changing Clock".
Copper gilded lighthouse-style weather watch, made in France in the 18th century
The grandfather clock is decorated with gold chains and silver anchors on the basis of the overall lighthouse shape. The front and back sides are all timetables, the left and right sides are the temperature and humidity meters and the wind and rain cold and heat tables, and the top is the compass.
I did not find the same model in the Forbidden City, but in early 2019, the Tianjin Museum opened the "Royal Garden Collection - Summer Palace Fine Cultural Relics Exhibition", in this exhibition there is a French nineteenth-century lighthouse-style cold and rain watch, which is very similar to this one in Nambo.
French nineteenth century lighthouse-style wind and rain table - Summer Palace Collection
The following three clocks, I did not find the same model in the Forbidden City.
Qingqianlong copper gilded Fulu Shou three-star clock
Clocks are divided into 3 floors. The bottom floor is lit on all four sides, and the landscape painting is painted inside, symbolizing the river with the water method, and the eight immortals appear in turn on the four sides. The Eight Immortals are shaped by a piece of metal and then painted with paint. The middle floor is a landscape that symbolizes auspiciousness. Ivory carvings of Fu, Shou and Lu stand side by side, holding a wat in each hand, and writing "Fu Ru DongHai", "Shou Bi Nanshan", and "Long Life Without Boundaries". There are bats and deer next to Fuxing and Luxing. Behind Samsung stands a beast, carrying a two-sided watch on its back, and the bezel is inlaid with red and yellow two-colored material stones. Pine and peach trees are planted behind the beast. Cranes stand between the branches of the pine trees, and each of the two trees is coiled with a dragon, and the mouth is like spitting water. On the top floor is the mirror.
The clock has a total of 3 sets of power device systems for timing, music and activity, of which the moving device control device and the music device are installed in the ground floor. After the strings are fully moved, the bottom water method rotates with the accompaniment of the music, the eight immortals circulate around the base landscape, the middle fulu shou three stars slowly unfold the wat board in their hands, and the dragon on the tree spits water. At the end of the song, all kinds of activities also stop.
Qing bronze gilded pavilion figure ringing bell, Made in England
Qing Jiaqing Copper gilded inlaid enamel people ring the clock, made in Guangzhou