Clocks and watches are a very special and precious category in the rich collection of the Qing Dynasty court. As the center of politics and court life in the Qing Dynasty, the Forbidden City and the Summer Resort have collected and furnished a large number of self-chiming clocks, with the same roots and the same origin, and it is difficult to distinguish between them. On January 25, 2022, the press conference of "Zhong Ming Shengshi: The Forbidden City and Chengde Summer Resort Tibetan Clocks and Watches Joint Exhibition" was held at the Palace Museum Jianfu Palace Garden Jingshengzhai . The exhibition is jointly sponsored by the Palace Museum and the Chengde Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics, with the full support of 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.
▲ Copper gilded goat packing box watch, England, 18th century, Chengde Mountain Resort Museum collection
▲The clocks and watches on display not only cover the works of famous artists in Western countries such as Britain, France, Switzerland, but also include domestic fine products made in the Qing Palace, Guangzhou, Suzhou and other places
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, including the works of famous artists in Western countries such as Britain, France, switzerland, and domestic products from the Qing Palace and 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.
▲ Copper gilded rural scenery water law clock, England, 18th century, collection of the Palace Museum
The clocks and watches of the Chengde Mountain Resort Museum exhibited in the exhibition 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 with a holistic 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.
▲Copper gilded screw-inlaid flower pot table in the two museums, England, 18th century
▲ The Palace Museum has a copper-plated moon-top man playing music bell (left), and a bronze gilded juvenile sheep-bearing bell, England, 18th century
In 2020, the Palace Museum and the Summer Resort Museum cooperated to establish the "Ancient Clock Joint Restoration Laboratory" to restore the clocks and watches collected by the Summer Resort, and this exhibition can be described as a display of the results of the joint restoration of clocks and watches by both sides.
On August 24, 2021, General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed during his inspection of Chengde Summer Resort: "Chengde Summer Resort has profound heritage and has important historical value and epochal significance in terms of ethnic exchanges and exchanges, religious and social adaptation, traditional culture protection and inheritance, and harmonious coexistence between man and nature. It is necessary to protect, inherit and make good use of China's excellent traditional culture, and excavate its rich connotations, so as to help better strengthen cultural self-confidence and unite the national spirit." On the occasion of the 2022 Lunar New Year Festival, the Palace Museum, the Chengde Mountain Resort Museum and FAW Hongqi joined forces to bring the audience a visual feast of organic integration of history and the present, art and culture in one, and good wishes.
▲ Bronze gilded transmutation pavilion bell, England, 18th century, collection of the Palace Museum
▲ Copper gilded sheep pack music box partridge bird clock, England, 18th century, collection of the Palace Museum
According to reports, after the exhibition, some of the exhibits will continue to be exhibited at the Chengde Mountain Resort Museum.
Author: Wen Wei Po reporter in Beijing Li Yang
Editor: Jiang Shengxin
Photo: Photo by Li Yang
Editor-in-charge: Lu Zhengming
*Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source when reprinting.