Clocks and watches are a very special and precious category in the rich collection of the Qing Dynasty court. The Forbidden City's collection of clocks and watches occupies an important position in the world's watch collection. The Paper learned that on January 25, the "Zhong Ming Shengshi: The Forbidden City and Chengde Summer Resort Collection of Clocks and Watches Joint Exhibition" opened at the Palace Museum, and the representative clock collections of the Palace Museum and the Chengde Summer Resort Museum were exhibited. The exhibits include masterpieces from Western countries, as well as domestic products from the Qing Palace, Guangzhou, Suzhou and other places.
As the center of politics and court life in the Qing Dynasty, the Forbidden City and the Summer Resort have historically collected a large number of self-chiming clocks, which are of the same origin and inseparable from each other. The exhibition selects representative clock collections of the Palace Museum and the Chengde Summer Resort Museum, and displays them together, of which 40 clocks and watches are exhibited by the Palace Museum and 20 clocks and watches are exhibited by the Chengde Summer Resort Museum. The production age of these clocks continued from the 18th century to the beginning of the 20th century, covering not only the works of famous artists in Western countries such as Britain, France, switzerland, etc., but also the domestic products of the Qing Palace, Guangzhou, Suzhou and other places. The exhibition also specially exhibits 10 pairs of clocks and watches collected by the two museums on the same stage, so that the audience can not only appreciate the colorful clocks of different periods, different cultures and different regions, but also fully understand the status of the Qing Dynasty court clock collection and furnishings, and perceive the trajectory of the development and change of the Qing Dynasty court concept of time.
Exhibition site
The clocks and watches of the Chengde Mountain Resort Museum exhibited this time are the most important parts of the museum's collection, which moved south with cultural relics in the 1930s and 1940s, and walked out of the summer resort for the first time in an overall appearance after being transported back to Chengde from Nanjing in 1956. The exhibition venue, the East Temple of the Qianqing Palace, was once the self-chiming bell of the Qing Palace in history. On the occasion of the 2022 Lunar New Year Festival, the Palace Museum and the Summer Resort Museum jointly bring to the audience a visual feast of organic integration of history and the present, art and culture, and good wishes. The Clocks of the Forbidden City and the Summer Resort are gathered here, and the crisp bells meet here through time and space, playing a magnificent chapter of the bell ringing.
The key exhibits of this exhibition include the 18th century British copper gilded three-person playing music turning clock, the Qianlong period Qing Palace bell wooden tower time clock, the Qianlong period Guangzhou copper gilded enamel flower gourd clock, the 19th century Swiss copper gilded magic clock, the 18th century French paint inlaid bronze ornamental clock, etc.
Copper gilded three-person playing music turning clock (pair)
England 18th century
The Palace Museum Is a collection of the Summer Resort Museum
The base of the bell is a music box, the front is a shiny colored material stone, and the bell plate is embedded in the center. At the four corners are the heads of men with horns on their heads and beards on their faces, and under the heads are bronze gilded carved skeleton flowers. Three children kneeling on the music box ring the bell bowl, and the three groups of bell bowls are covered by hollow flowers. There is a group of screens on the back of the children, which are copper gilded vine flowers, a set of colored material stone patterns in the center, and eight colored material stone flowers on the top of the screen. The machine starts, and the seven small flowers at the top rotate around the central flower, rotating at the same time, resembling a leather ball. The golden hollow flowers in front of the bell bowl rotate, and children beat the bell bowl to accompany the music. Originally a pair, this pair of clocks is now in the Palace Museum and the Summer Resort Museum, and this is the first time to be exhibited together.
Wooden building style time is more clock
The Qing Palace did the bell during the Qianlong period
Collection of the Palace Museum
The shape of the bell is a traditional Chinese pavilion style, with a rosewood sumizak shell, a carved lotus throughout, and a hollowed-out copper gilded flower board on the left and right sides of the bell, and the auspicious pattern of "Wufu Bo Shou" carved on the board, interspersed with flowing clouds. The layout of the bell plate is the typical style of the Qianlong imperial system, yellow enamel, with the "Qianlong Year System" model, and the five starting string holes below are in order from left to right: time, time, engraving, playing, and changing. At the top of the bell stands a four-pillar square pavilion, under which a copper bell is inverted, and a wooden hammer is attached to the bell, which is connected to the movement system. This clock goes during the day, tells the time, announces the moment, and plays more at night. Ring the clock bowl inside the movement when chiming and chime, knock on the bronze bell under the pavilion when playing more, and the sound of the report is thick and loud, reaching the distance.
This clock is one of the representatives of the Qianlong Imperial Clock, from which we can see the commonality of this kind: the dark color of the wooden structure to highlight its solemnity, the tall and wide shape shows its dignity. Since there are many Western watchmakers who work in the bell office, the mechanical part of the imperial clock is quite accurate.
Copper gilded enamel turn flower gourd clock
Guangzhou Qianlong period
On the ground floor is the music box. The front of the ground floor is a landscape, with a neutral person holding a word link, surrounded by a circle of treasure offerings. The landscape is also decorated with auspicious and allegorical scenery, such as deer, bats with fluttering wings on the reishi mushroom, and fairy apes holding peaches. The landscape is flanked by couplets, written on rotatable triangular copper pillars, which change their content with each turn. Among them, there are two couplets, namely "Auspicious View, Boundless Sound" and "The Resort is Good, Spring Terrace is Festive"; there is another painting couplet, the left and right pictures are the same, both of which are kneeling on the ground and holding up the pagoda with both hands. Inside the oval two-storey frontal set box is an oil painting of the cityscape, with moving figures in between. The remaining surfaces are surrounded by water law. The two-storey platform is tiled with water methods, and the middle is a flat gourd bottle. The lower abdomen of the bottle is embedded with a clock, the upper abdomen has a stone flower, and a large bouquet of flowers is inserted in the bottle. After the bottom layer is wound up, the music is started, and the holder shows the four words "FuShou Qi Tian", and the treasure offering team around it comes out of the entrance, and the bats on the Ganoderma lucidum flutter their wings and the word is converted. The characters walk in front of the second-floor set, the water method on the side rotates like a waterfall flowing straight down, and the water method on the platform rotates like a wave. After the strings are loosened, the music stops, and the moving thing stops performing.
Copper gilded magic clock
Switzerland 19th century
The overall shape of the clock is architectural, the upper spire is equipped with part of the movement, the clock does not have a dial, and the display of time is through two small windows arranged up and down at the top of the building, the upper display point, the lower display time.
After winding, the music starts, the door opens, and the magician sits at the table with two cups in his hand, nodding, blinking, and opening his mouth to speak, as if to remind the audience that the performance is about to begin. Then the magician picked up the cup, and there was nothing under it. When the button is put on and then picked up, a red bead appears under the cup on the left and right sides. Repeat the same action, and the cup will become three small red beads. Then, white beads appear. At the same time as the magician performs the beads, the flower basket on the table cracks, and a small bird jumps out of it, sometimes standing still, sometimes turning. Suddenly, the magician pulled down the cup, and the bouncing bird retreated into the flower basket. When the magician picked up the cup again, something magical happened, and the bird in the flower basket actually appeared under the cup. In sync with the magician show, the orb on the roof opens and birds jump out of it while turning and spreading their wings while chirping. After the performance, the bell rings, the door closes, and the action stops.
Copper gold-plated flower stand watch (pair)
Guangzhou Qingqianlong
Collection of the Summer Resort Museum
The bell body is made of copper gilded material, the flower frame support is in the shape of a flower branch, the whole body is hollowed out with a lotus pattern, and the inlaid with various colored material stones, the shape is exquisite and beautiful. Rosewood tunic base with copper gilded trim. The top is a round dial surrounded by flowers, and the spire is a blooming lotus flower. This timepiece summer house museum has a pair of treasures.
Coloured lacquer inlaid with bronze atrium clock
France 18th century
Wooden bell shell with black lacquer on the top and painted with red, pink flowers and dark stripes of green leaves on the lacquer floor. The top is cup-shaped, the curves are flexible, and the bell is framed and cornered with copper gilded indigod leaf pattern and swirling coil. In the center is a round dial with a white large flame enamel, inlaid with Louis XV hands, which contrasts with the simple and unambiguous dial, with Arabic/Roman numerals and winding holes at four and eight o'clock. The dial is covered with glass and the shape is round and full, which is in harmony with the overall style. Long arched windows on both sides, copper gilded hollow diamond pattern, lined with pink cloth, make the appearance gorgeous, and have the practical function of diffusing sound. Opening the door on the back and opening the window at the bell bowl can also play a role in diffusing sound. The bottom opens a small window, covered with glass, and the pendulum can be viewed, which is very interesting. Its lower four legs, bent inwards, puffed outwards, the shape appears strong and powerful.
Engraved on the front dial with the words "HENRY PADEVAL" (Henri Padval) and "PARIS" (Paris), it was made by the famous French watchmaker Henri Padval in the 18th century.
Copper gilded rhinoceros pack table (pair)
Red velvet base, copper gilded four-roll grass carved feet, with lifting rings on both sides, the whole is copper gilded texture. On the base stands a rhinoceros with a flower-like mechanism at the belly of the cow and a luxuriously decorated gourd-shaped clock box on the back of the cow. The box is divided into two layers, and the lower layer is a large seven small inlay stone wheel-shaped turning. The upper level is a double-sided small watch with a white porcelain dial. The front dial has winding holes at three o'clock and nine o'clock, which have two functions: walking time and dotting; the back dial is engraved with "JA. LOGO OF COX LONDON". Four-cornered ornament stone vase, in the bottle inserted stone flower butterfly. The clock box is topped with a vase with a bouquet of birds and stones. The bell body is flanked by removable copper-gilt skeleton windows lined with pink trim. After the mechanism is wound, the music sounds and the flowers spin. This timepiece summer house museum has a pair of treasures. Made by James Cox.
This exhibition is also another cooperation between the Palace Museum and the Chengde Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics following the signing of the strategic agreement in 2020 and the successful holding of the exhibition "Sumire Fushou: When Tashilhunpo Monastery Meets the Summer Resort" exhibition at the Chengde Museum, and is a positive attempt by Chengde to implement the "going out" strategy with the support of the Palace Museum. In 2020, the Palace Museum cooperated with the Summer Resort Museum to establish the "Ancient Clock joint restoration laboratory" to restore the clocks and watches in the summer resort. After the exhibition, some of the exhibits will continue to be exhibited at the Chengde Mountain Resort Museum.
The exhibition is located in the East Hall of the Qianqing Palace of the Palace Museum and will be open to the public from January 26 to May 8. According to the needs of epidemic prevention and control, the exhibition implements reservation admission, with a daily limit of 1,000 people, until the quota is full.