Ewer

Description

Ewer and cover of gold with projecting peach-shaped panel on each side containing chased scroll work, engraved lotus leaves on neck, spout rising from the mouth of a qilin, cover with bands of diaper and scroll work: China, Qing Dynasty, 18th to middle 19th century, from Yuanmingyuan (Summer Palace), Beijing, presented by the British forces in 1860 to Lieut-General Sir Hope Grant

Museum reference

A.1884.54

Collection

World Culture

Object name

Ewer

Production information

Yiheyuan, Beijing, China, East Asia

Date

1851

Style / Culture

Qing Dynasty, Chinese (Manchu)

Materials

Gold

Physical description

Rosewater ewer and cover of gold, pear-shaped body rising from circular spreading foot to tall-waisted flaring neck, on each side a projecting peach-shaped panel containing chased scrollwork, engraved lotus leaves on neck, the spout rising from the mouth of a qilin, cover with bands of diaper and scrollwork

Associations

Previous owner: Grant, James Hope, Lieutenant-General, Sir, G.C.B., 1808 - 1875
Looting of Yuanmingyuan (Summer Palace), Beijing

Exhibitions

• Exploring East Asia (08 Feb 2019)
  National Museum of Scotland

References

Henry Knollys, Incidents in the China War of 1860 Compiled from the Private Journals of Sir Hope Grant, G. C. B. (William Blackwood & Son, 1875), p. 194

Greg M. Thomas, The Looting of Yuanming and the Translation of Chinese Art in Europe, Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Autumn 2008).

Kevin McLoughlin, " "Rosewater upon his delicate hands": Imperial and Imperialist Readings of the Hope Grant Ewer", in Louise Tythacott, ed., Collecting and Displaying China's "Summer Palace" in the West: The Yuanmingyuan in Britain and France (Routledge, 2018), pp. 99-119.

On display

national museum of scotland »
level 5 »
world cultures, exploring east asia