Beijing News Express (reporter Ma Jinqian) On January 25, the Palace Museum held a press conference on "Zhong Ming Shengshi: The Forbidden City and Chengde Mountain Resort Tibetan Clocks and Watches Joint Exhibition". This exhibition selects 60 representative watches and clocks, dating from the 18th century to the beginning of the 20th century, not only covering the works of famous artists in Western countries such as Britain, France, Switzerland, but also domestic products such as the Qing Palace.
Guests viewing the exhibition. Beijing News reporter Pu Feng photographed
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 Forbidden City and the Chengde Summer Resort, as the center of political and court life in the Qing Dynasty, have historically collected a large number of self-chiming clocks and watches, which are of the same origin and inseparable from each other.
In the 18th century, the British made copper gilded trans-pavilion clocks. Beijing News reporter Pu Feng photographed
This exhibition selects the representative clock collections of the Palace Museum and the Chengde Summer Resort Museum, and exhibits 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.
Guests photographing exquisite clocks. Beijing News reporter Pu Feng photographed
In particular, the exhibition will display 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 and watches of different periods, cultures and 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.
For example, the exhibition presents a bronze gilded three-person playing flower clock, which was originally a pair of clocks and is now in the Palace Museum and the Chengde Mountain Resort Museum, which is the first time to be exhibited together.
A pair of 18th-century British copper-plated triple-player playing flower clocks from the Palace Museum and the Chengde Mountain Resort Museum are on display. Beijing News reporter Pu Feng photographed
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. 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.
British made copper gilded three-man playing a flower clock. Courtesy of the Palace Museum
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 site, the East Hall of the Qianqing Palace, was once the decoration of 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 Chengde Mountain Resort Museum jointly bring to the audience a visual feast of organic integration of history and the present, art and culture, and good wishes.
A pair of bronze gilded beast camel mirrors from the Palace Museum and the Chengde Mountain Resort Museum are on display. Beijing News reporter Pu Feng photographed
In 2020, the Palace Museum cooperated with the Chengde Summer Resort Museum to establish the "Ancient Clock joint restoration laboratory" to restore the clocks and watches stored in the Chengde Summer Resort. 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.
A steamship-style weather watch made in France. Beijing News reporter Pu Feng photographed
Britain made copper gilded moon top man playing a musical clock. Beijing News reporter Pu Feng photographed
It is reported that the exhibition is jointly sponsored by the Palace Museum and the Chengde Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics, and supported by FAW Hongqi. 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. After the exhibition, some of the exhibits will continue to be exhibited at the Chengde Mountain Resort Museum.
Beijing News reporter Ma Jinqian photojournalist Pu Feng
Edited by Liu Qianxian proofread by Liu Yue