An emperor's collection: "rare as the stars of morning"

On the top floor of the British Museum is an amazing collection of the finest Chinese ceramics, many of them from the Imperial courts or the personal collections of Emperors themselves.  Some of the rarer pieces are Ru ware, from Northern kilns, which were only made for about forty years in the twelfth century AD, and were highly prized by connoisseurs, courtiers and scholars, as well as Emperors.  This piece is a cup stand from the Song dynasty, part of the collection of Sir Harry Garner and his wife; he was a government scientist whose hobby was the study of Chinese art and design.

Ru stoneware cup stand, N. Song dynasty 1090-1127.  © V&A Museum

This may have been to hold  a tea bowl; the emperor Huizong was a great tea connoisseur.

The Ru kilns were in Henan province, near the Northern Song capital of Kaifeng, and it is thought many of the master potters followed the court south to Hangzhou when Kaifeng fell to the mongolian Jin dynasty in 1127.

From the beginning, these Ru ware pots were rare and desirable, made specifically for the court of the Emperor Huizong, (AD 1100-1125) and even today there are less than 100 complete pieces in known collections, even after the discovery and excavation of the kiln sites near Baofengxian in 1987. They were admired for their finely potted hard bodies, often with the rim protected in smooth copper, and particularly their resemblance to magical jade.  The distinctive blue-green celadon colour was the result of ferrous oxide in the glaze, fired in a reducing atmosphere: the air holes to the kiln are blocked producing a smoky atmosphere and the fire draws its oxygen from the iron in the glaze, changing the colour in the process to cool grey-blues and greens. (Note that photographs of the same object vary in accuracy of tone.)  

Ru stoneware brush-washing dish, Northern Song (960-1127) © Rohsska Museum, Gothenburg

Most of the surviving pieces of Ru and other ancient wares reached the West through the efforts of Percival David, who persuaded the Chinese officials to let him curate and exhibit the Imperial ceramics in the neglected Forbidden City in the late1920s.  He returned in 1930 with a programme of exhibitions and catalogues and purchased any pieces he could which reached the antiquities market. In 1950 he gave his extensive ceramic collection to University College London for public education and research, and it is now on longterm loan to the British Museum.

This to me, is one of the stars in Percival David's collection, simply for itself, and then for its later connection with Hongli, the Qianlong Emperor from 1735-96.

Ru stoneware with celadon glaze and copper rim, from Qingliangsi, Northern Song c. AD 1086-1125

© Percival David Loan Collection,  Joseph Hotung Gallery, British Museum

These test samples for colour and kiln temperature show some of the difficulties of achieving perfect pieces in the temperamental medieval wood-fired kilns, with variable quality clays and glaze materials, relying on the expertise of the kiln master to control the temperatures and the reduction of oxygen over several days of firing.  Even stormy weather could ruin a whole kiln batch, as Bernard Leach discovered working with traditional methods in Japan.

Ru ware firing samples, designed to be strung together. c.1086-1125 

© Percival David Loan Collection, British Museum

The Emperor Hongli liked to add his thoughts and poems as inscriptions, making his mark on particular pieces in the Imperial collection (much of which was inherited from his father).  He promoted his image as a Confucian scholar and sage, a connoisseur collector of antiquities, as well as a wise, strong ruler.

The Qianglong Emperor in his study.   This portrait was painted for him by Guiseppe Castiglione, a Jesuit lay brother at the court.

Here is a translation of his inscription added to the Ru bowl above, in his collection:

"Many dishes have survived but bowls are difficult to find. In the palace alone are stored well nigh a hundred dishes. Yet bowls are as rare as stars in the morning.  What is there, forsooth, for which a cause cannot be found?  Large bowls are difficult to preserve, small dishes easy.  In this I find a moral and a warning.  The greater the object, the heavier the task for its care.  Composed by the Qianlong Emperor in the cyclical year bingwu ."  [AD1786].

Later inscription added in 1786 by Qianlong Emperor to Ru stoneware bowl shown above 

© Percival David Collection, B.M.

The other attraction of Ru and similar wares was the crackle in the glaze, described as "cracked ice" or "crab claw veins."  This crazing is technically a fault, caused by the glaze and body of the pot expanding and contracting at different rates in the kiln, but the Chinese potters were skilful enough to exploit it as a decorative technique, using several layers of glaze to help achieve it; other wares filled the cracks with dark stain for emphasis.  The other secret of the finest wares was the long grinding by hand of the glaze materials, even for two or three days.  It is this unpredictability of the materials and production methods which gives each piece its individuality, and explains why such a small number of perfect pieces were produced.  

Some coveted Ru wares and other celadons were exported to Korea, and then copied there.   A contemporary Korean scholar and official Yi Kyu-bo (1168-1241) describes the ceramic works near the capital Kaesong:

"The felling of trees left Mount Namsan bare and the smoke from the fires obscured the sun.
The wares produced were celadon bowls: out of every ten, one was selected - for it had the bluish green lustre of jade.
It was clear and bright as crystal, it was hard as rock.
With what skill did the potters work - it seemed as if they borrowed the secret from Heaven!"

 Ru ware from the Percival David Collection.  The central wine bottle is 20 cms. high  

© British Museum

Qianglong Emperor's inscription translation by R.L. Hobson, © Percival David Foundation.

Yi-Kyu-bo translation from Beth McKillop's "Korean Art & Design" © V&A Museum.