The Chinese vase represented in our engraving is one of three which was sent to London from Pekin by Lady Alcock, the wife of Sir Rutherford Alcock, the British Ambassador at the Imperial Court of China. They were intrusted to the care of Messrs. Hunt and Roskell, of New Bond-street; but they have now become the property of the King of the Belgians. The beauty of their form and design will be evident from our Illustration. The workmanship is exquisitely beautiful, and the enamelling is of the description to which the French apply the term "cloisonné." The amount of work involved in this process is wonderful. Slender slips of metal, fashioned to the pattern desired, are soldered upon the body of the object to be enriched, and the spaces are then filled up with powder or paste, which constitutes the enamel. The object is then placed in a furnace and heated until the vitreous enamel is fused. After very gradual cooling, the surface is made even by grinding and polishing. This art is supposed to have been introduced into Europe about the tenth or eleventh century; but the works were generally very small and in gold, and therefore few specimens exist. The art is not yet wholly lost in China; but the modern productions are very inferior to the ancient, which were produced in the palmy days of the "Ta-Ming" dynasty, in the reigns of "Keun-Ling" and "Kang-Hi," the Augustan era in China for works of art in bronze, cloisonne, and porcelain. Such works are now only to be obtained from the palaces of Imperial Princes and great mandarins, whose descendants want money and care little for art. These vases evidently belong to the best period. They are undoubtedly the finest works which have yet found their way to Europe. Their size is also extraordinary, measuring each 3 ft. in height, independent of their bases; and the colour of the enamel is very uncommon and beautiful. When shown to Lady Alcock, the wife of our Ambassador at Pekin, her Ladyship, possessing very great taste for art, at once appreciated their high merits, and secured them, with the laudable desire of sending them to Europe as specimens of Chinese art.
Source: The Illustrated London News, Vol. LIV, March 6, 1869, p.233
Chinese Vase, purchased by the
King of the Belgians
