The imperial tea house uses porcelain, and there is one that is still unknown

The Imperial Tea Room is located in the 3 north rooms of the Qianqing Palace's East End Pavilion, which was established in the early Qing Dynasty to specialize in the emperor's tea drinking, fruit and various seasonal banquets. For this purpose, the Royal Kiln Factory fired three kinds of flower color utensils: "Yellow Porcelain Longevity Boundless", "Yellow Porcelain Wufu Baoshou" and "Purple Dragon Yellow Porcelain". The type of the vessel is only a large plate, a fruit bowl and a three-inch dish, with a large plate diameter of 17.7 cm, a fruit bowl diameter of 11.5 cm, and a three-inch dish diameter of 11 cm, which is used for holding snacks and fruits.

"Yellow porcelain longevity without frontiers", now the usual name "yellow pastel depiction of gold knots with 'swastika' character 'longevity without frontiers' pattern".

▌ Guangxu style yellow pastel depicting gold knot with "swastika" character "long life without boundaries" bowl

Taking the bowl as an example, the utensils are glazed with yellow glaze inside and outside, the inside of the plate and the outer wall of the bowl are painted with the main ornamentation, and the four characters of the golden color book "Wan", "Shou", "Wu" and "Xinjiang" are used in four round open lights, the gap between the open light is decorated with pastel swastika streamers and clouds, the near foot is decorated with pastel seawater river cliff patterns, the inside of the bowl is only applied yellow glaze, without any ornamentation, and the outer wall of the plate is painted with three groups of folded branches and flowers. The outsole is glazed with white glaze, and the six-character double-line model of the alum red color italic "Great Qing Guangxu Year System" is signed.

"Yellow porcelain five bats holding shou", now the usual name "yellow pastel peach bat pattern group 'shou' character".

▌ Guangxu yellow pastel peach bat pattern "Shou" word bowl

In the case of bowls, for example, the utensils are glazed with yellow glaze inside and out, and they are painted with ornamentation. The inner golden color book group "Shou" character is painted around the five colors of bat patterns, and the gap is written in alum red color group "Shou" character, and then decorated with ribbons and folded branches and peach patterns. The outer wall of the artifact is also painted with bat patterns of five different colors, decorated with red color clusters "Shou" characters, ribbons and folded branches of peach. The outsole is glazed with white glaze, and the six-character double-line model of the alum red color italic "Great Qing Guangxu Year System" is signed.

"Purple Dragon Yellow Porcelain", literally, refers to the yellow ground purple color dragon pattern porcelain, but there is no physical object that meets the above characteristics, see "Yellow Ground Purple And Green Color Inner Cloud Dragon Outer Cloud Crane Pattern", "Yellow Ground Purple and Green Color Inner Cloud Dragon Outer Dragon Outer Dragon Tiger Pattern" and "Yellow Ground Purple and Green Color Inner Cloud Dragon Outer Grape Pattern" Plate, all belong to dayun porcelain, the outsole is signed with blue and white italics "Great Qing Guangxu Year System", therefore, it is difficult to determine what kind of ornamental "Purple Dragon Yellow Porcelain" is based on the records in the archives alone.

This article is excerpted from the 8th issue of the "Collection" magazine "Cixi Wanshou Royal Porcelain Examination" in 2019, please pay attention to the current issue of the magazine for more content.