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Unknown Transcultural Objects: Turned Ivory Works by the European Rose Engine Lathe in the Eighteenth-Century Qing Court

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EurAsian Matters

Abstract

This paper analyzes a group of rose engine lathe-turned ivory works from the original Qing court collection, which were previously unknown to museum curators and scholars. The transcultural messages carried by the lathe-turned ivory works and the role that lathe turning machinery in the Qing court played in artistic exchanges and in disseminating technical knowledge between eighteenth-century Europe and China are significant. The recent publication of the Imperial Household archives has made this research possible, and it has been the author’s privilege to work with the National Palace Museum’s digital archive of the collection and with colleagues in the Palace Museum, Beijing, to identify similar works in storage. The turned ivory works by European rose engine lathe in the eighteenth-century Qing court is an interesting and solid case study for the discussion of communication between the East and the West. This paper evaluates imperial archive documents, ivory art works made by European rose engine lathes in the imperial workshops, and the relevant practical techniques brought to the Qing court, to discuss the exchange of art and craftsmanship techniques between the East and the West during the period.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Shih Ching-fei 施靜菲, “Ye shi bolaipin: Qinggong zhong de huashi xuanchuang 也是舶來品: 清宮中的花式鏇床 (Another Item from Over the Sea: Rose Engine Lathes at the Qing Court),” Taida Journal of Art History 32 (2012): 171–238. Gathering all available evidence and contextual data, the essay investigates the role that the Western lathe played in the Qing court and the evidence that it and related works of art supply for our understanding of artistic and technological exchange between East and West in the eighteenth century.

  2. 2.

    The long history of Chinese ivory artworks can be traced back to the Neolithic period. While ivory is not a mainstream material in early Chinese art history, it was not until the seventeenth to early twentieth centuries that ivory artworks reached its high peak. One of the reasons for this may have been that the elephant tusks were greatly valued as diplomatic presents and imported via marine trade.

  3. 3.

    Klaus Maurice, “The Princely Art of Turning on the Aesthetic Significance of the Natural Sciences and Technology,” in Gedrehte Kostbarkeiten: Turned Treasuries, edited by Georg Laue, Klaus Maurice and Christiane Zeiller (Munich: Kunstkammer, 2004), 16–23.

  4. 4.

    For a brief history of lathe development, please refer to Klaus Maurice, Sovereigns as Turners (Zurich: Verlag Ineichen, 1985), 131–8.

  5. 5.

    They were recently revealed by the author and my colleagues in the Palace Museum, Beijing. See the special issue of Forbidden City Monthly on ivory-turning at the Qing court. Liu Yue 劉岳, “Cong yi jian Qinggong yiliu de xiangya qiwu shuo qi 從一件清宮遺留的象牙器物說起 (Speaking about a Qing court ivory crafted object),” The Forbidden City Monthly 203 (12/2011): 40–56; Shih Ching-fei 施靜菲, “Ni suo bu zhidao de Guangdong xiangyaqiu 你所不知道的廣東象牙球 (Concentric Ivory Spheres from Canton),” The Forbidden City Monthly 203 (12/2011): 20–36.

  6. 6.

    I would like to thank Dr. Jutta Kappel of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden for the information through email communication. For private collections, see Georg Laue, Klaus Maurice and Christiane Zeiller, ed., Gedrehte Kostbarkeiten: Turned Treasuries (Munich: Kunstkammer, 2004), 28–9 and Sotheby’s auction 2011, accessed December 12, 2015, http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2011/property-from-the-collections-of-lily-edmond-j-safra-n08822/lot.773.html

  7. 7.

    Maurice, Sovereigns as Turners, 85.

  8. 8.

    See Maurice, Sovereigns as Turners, nos. 115 and 117.

  9. 9.

    The old inventory number of these two boxes is Lu 呂 no.3370, indicating that their original location is Tishun tang ji ge xianfang denchu 體順堂及各廂房等處 (Hall of Manifesting Obedience and other side chambers). See Committee for the Disposition of Qing’s Imperial Possessions, ed., Gugong wupin diancha baogao 故宮物品點查報告 (Palace Items Auditing Report) (Beijing: Xianzhuang shuju, 2004).

  10. 10.

    Wang Yi 萬依, Wang Shuqin 王樹卿, and Lu Yenzhen 陸燕貞, ed., Gugong jingdian: Qinggong shenghuo tudian 故宫经典:清宮生活图典 (Life in the Forbidden City of Qing dynasty) (Beijing: Zijin cheng chubanshe, 2007), 143, pl. 214.

  11. 11.

    See the case study of wooden goblets in the Qing court. Ching-fei Shih, “The Wooden Hundred-layered Goblet from the Western Ocean,” Orientations 48, no. 4 (2015): 60–4.

  12. 12.

    Laue, “Turned Treasuries,” 18–23.

  13. 13.

    For general accounts on European ivory works, see Peter E. Lasko, ed., Ivory: A History and Collection Guide (London: Thames and Hudson, 1987). Richard H. Randall Jr., Masterpieces of Ivory: from the Walters Art Gallery (New York: Hudson Hills Press and Walters Art Gallery, 1985).

  14. 14.

    Sato Nayoki 佐藤直樹, and Tanabe Mikinosuke 田辺幹之助, ed., ドレスデン国立美術館展-世界の鏡 (Dresden: Spiegel der Welt: Die Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden in Japan) (Tokyo: Nikkei Inc., 2005), 35–6; Arthur MacGregor, Curiosity and Enlightenment: Collectors and Collections from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth centuries (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), 214.

  15. 15.

    Rudolph II was Holy Roman Emperor (1576–1612), King of Hungary and Croatia (as Rudolf I, 1572–1608), King of Bohemia (1575–1608/1611), and Archduke of Austria (1576–1608). One of his lathe-turned works was kept in the Kunstkammer housed in the National Museum of Demark. Accessed November 7, 2011, http://www.kunstkammer.dk/AndetGB/genstande_andetGB.asp?ID=77.

  16. 16.

    Horst Bredekamp, The Lure of Antiquity and the Cult of the Machine: The Kunstkammer and the Evolution of Nature, Art and Technology, trans. Allison Brown (Princeton: Markus Weiner Publishers, 1995), 37–45; Maurice, Sovereigns as Turners, 15–22.

  17. 17.

    Wang Ching-ling 王靜靈, “Yuzhou he shijie de zhuzai: Tan Delesideng suocang Sakesen wanghou de duomianti xiangyataoqiu zhizuo 宇宙和世界的主宰-談德勒斯登所藏薩克森王侯的多面體象牙套球製作 (The Ruler of the Universe and World: The Ivory-crafted Geometrical Balls Produced and Collected by Saxon Kings and Princes in Dresden),” The Forbidden City Monthly 203 (12/2011): 57–67.

  18. 18.

    MacGregor, Curiosity and Enlightenment, 215.

  19. 19.

    For an example of such work, see Sato and Tanabe, ドレスデン国立美術館展-世界の鏡, 36.

  20. 20.

    Arthur MacGregor, Tradescant’s Rarities: Essays on the Foundations of the Ashmolean Museum, 1683, with a catalogue of the surviving early collections (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), 289–90.

  21. 21.

    Maurice, Sovereigns as Turners, 134.

  22. 22.

    Stuart King, “History of the Lathe: part two—continuous rotation,” blog entry, posted March 22, 2008, accessed August 31, 2011, http://www.stuartking.co.uk/index.php/history-of-the-lathe-part-two-continuous-rotation/

  23. 23.

    Laue, Maurice and Zeiller, Gedrehte Kostbarkeiten: Turned Treasuries, 77–8.

  24. 24.

    Lazarist Mission Press, Catalogue of the Pei-T’ang Library (Beijing: Guojia tushuguang chubanshe, 2008), 155, no. 578. Charles Plumier, L’art de tourner, ou de faire en perfection toutes sortes d’ouvrages au tour (Paris: Jean Jombert, 1701). For the history of Beitang Library, see Mao Ruifang 毛瑞芳, “‘Beitang shumu’: jilu xixue dongjian de zhongyao lishi wenxian 《北堂書目》: 記錄西學東漸的重要歷史文獻 (The Importance of ‘Beitang Shumu’ for the History of Western Cultural Input into the East),” Journal of Historiography 4 (2007): 112–8.

  25. 25.

    Maurice, Sovereigns as Turners, 103.

  26. 26.

    This was different from attitudes during the preceding Ming dynasty, when, for instance, Emperor Wanli 萬曆 rejected an audience with the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci. See Chen Hui-Hung 陳慧宏, “Yesuhui jiaoshi Li Madou shidai de shijue wuxiang ji chuanbo wangluo 耶穌會教士利瑪竇時代的視覺物像及傳播網絡 (Visual Objects and Personal Interactions: Their Contexts as Described by the Jesuit Matteo Ricci (1552–1610)),” New History Journal 21, no. 3 (2010): 55–123.

  27. 27.

    Shih, “Ye shi bolaipin: Qinggong zhong de haushi xuanchuang,” 171–238; Liu, “Cong yi jian Qinggong yiliu de xiangya qiwu shuo qi,” 40–56.

  28. 28.

    Shih, “Ye shi bolaipin: Qinggong zhong de huashi xuanchuang,” pl. 26B.

  29. 29.

    Shih, “Ye shi bolaipin: Qinggong zhong de huashi xuanchuang,” pl. 20 and 25.

  30. 30.

    For instance, Liu, “Cong yijian Qinggong yiliu de xiangya qiwu shuo qi,” 49. A similar ivory box is found in a private collection. Jia Yang 江揚, and Yang Xuejun 楊學軍, ed., Shangyi shanfang cang Zhongguo xiangya diaoke 尚藝山房藏中國象牙雕刻 (Chinese Ivory Carvings from the Appreciating Art Mountain Retreat Collection) (Suzhou: Guwu xuan chubanshe, 2011), 110.

  31. 31.

    Orig.“做避暑巴爾薩木香小象牙盒十件.” “Xuan zuo 鏇作 (lathe-turning workshops), the third month of the seventh year of Yongzheng’s reign,” in Qinggong neiwufu zaobanchu dangan zonghui 清宮造務府造辦處檔案總匯 (The compilation of the Qing Imperial Household Archives), ed. Chinese University of Hong Kong, Art Museum (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 2005), vol. 3, 769. Balsam is one kind of ointment or essence, which was employed for placebo effect.

  32. 32.

    Shih, “Ye shi bolaipin: Qinggong zhong de huashi xuanchuang,” 185–6.

  33. 33.

    Orig. “圓明園來帖稱本月初七日司庫常保首領薩木哈來說, 太監滄州傳旨:著用西洋鏇床將好款式花紋象牙盒鏇做些。欽此。本日太監楊文杰回明, 員外郎滿毗擬試做各式象牙盒十對。記此.” “Xuan zuo 鏇作 (lathe-turning workshops), the fifth month of the tenth year of Yongzheng’s reign,” in Qinggong neiwufu zaobanchu dangan zonghui 清宮內務府造辦處檔案總匯 (The compilation of the Qing Imperial Household Archives), ed. Chinese University of Hong Kong, Art Museum (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 2005), vol. 5, 394.

  34. 34.

    Jutta Kappel, “Turned Ivory Works,” in Princely Splendor: The Dresden Court 1580–1620, ed. Dirk Syndram and Antje Scherner (Milan: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden and Mondadori Eleca S.p.A., 2004), 176–97.

  35. 35.

    See Du Shiran 杜石然, and Han Qi 韓琦, “Shiqi, shiba shiji Faguo Yesuhuishi dui Zhongguo kexue de gongxian 十七、十八世紀法國耶穌會士對中國科學的貢獻 (The contribution to Chinese science of French Jesuit missionaries in the 17th and 18th centuries),” Impact of Science on Society 167 (1993): 55–64. For the history and various compilation of Chongzhen lishu, see Chu Ping-yi 祝平一, “Chongzhen lishu kao 〈《崇禎曆書》考〉 (The Chongzhen Almanc Test),” Mingdai yanjiu 11 (2008): 133–61.

  36. 36.

    National Palace Museum, ed., Kangxi dadi yu taiyang wang Luyi shisi tezhan 康熙大帝與太陽王路易十四特展 (Emperor Kangxi and the Sun King Louis XIV) (Taipei: National Palace Museum, 2011), 78, pl. IB-26.

  37. 37.

    Shih, “Ye shi bolaipin: Qinggong zhong de huashi xuanchuang,” 191, pl. 28.

  38. 38.

    “Xuan zuo 鏇作 (lathe-turning workshop), the sixth month of the first year of Qianlong’s reign,” in Qinggong neiwufu zaobanchu dangan zonghui 清宮內務府造辦處檔案總匯 (The compilation of the Qing Imperial Household Archives), ed. by Chinese University of Hong Kong, Art Museum (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 2005).

  39. 39.

    “Guangmu zuo 廣木作 (Canton wood workshops), the twelfth month of the forty-first year of Qianlong’s reign,” in Qinggong neiwufu zaobanchu dangan zonghui 清宮內務府造辦處檔案總匯 (The compilation of the Qing Imperial Household Archives), ed. Chinese University of Hong Kong, Art Museum (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 2005), vol. 39, 708.

  40. 40.

    Guangdong ivory workshops and European ornamental turners’ studios preferred African ivory.

  41. 41.

    For instance, see the analysis of Dutch and Portuguese embassies to China in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. John Wills, Embassies and Illusions: Dutch and Portuguese Envoys to K’ang-hsi (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, 1984).

  42. 42.

    I would like to thank one of the reviewers and Prof. Monica Juneja for raising questions about the sources of material and the relation to technology.

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  1. Graduate Institute of Art History, National Taiwan University, Taipei City, Taiwan

    Ching-fei Shih

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  1. Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Anna Grasskamp

  2. Cluster of Excellence Asia & Europe in a Global Context, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany

    Monica Juneja

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Shih, Cf. (2018). Unknown Transcultural Objects: Turned Ivory Works by the European Rose Engine Lathe in the Eighteenth-Century Qing Court. In: Grasskamp, A., Juneja, M. (eds) EurAsian Matters. Transcultural Research – Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75641-7_3

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