Bowl
maker
Unknown
Date1723-1735
Place MadeChina, East Asia
Medium"Famille rose" style enamels on white glazed porcelain
Dimensions21 x 22 cm (8 1/4 x 8 11/16 in.)
ClassificationsVessels
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberC1s29
eMuseum ID721197
EmbARK ObjectID11026
TMS Source ID282
Last Updated8/14/24
Status
Not on viewWeb CommentaryThe Eight Immortals of Taoism are beings that were born human and later transformed into divine entities that are immortal and possess supernatural powers. Each Immortal has different individual symbols that are representative of them. The Eight Immortals play an important spiritual and cultural role in China. The bowl depicts the iconography of each of the Immortals, and is dated to the Yongzheng Emperor who ruled from 1722 to 1735 as the fifth emperor of the Qing Dynasty. The provenance of the bowl can't be definitively determined, but it is known to have entered Isabella Stewart Gardner’s collection by the 1890’s. It is likely one of the fourteen Chinese pieces that Isabella notes in her List of Things for Museum that was written between March 25, 1897 and December 26, 1898. Isabella documented many of the objects in her collection and her List of Things for the Museum is made up of handwritten paper acquisition records that were bound together with gilded leather.
BibliographyNotesGilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 22. (as Chinese, Yung-chêng period, 1723-1735)
Yasuko Horioka et al. Oriental and Islamic Art: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1975), p. 37 no. 15. (as Chinese, mark and reign of Yung-chêng, 1723-1735)
Yasuko Horioka et al. Oriental and Islamic Art: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1975), p. 37 no. 15. (as Chinese, mark and reign of Yung-chêng, 1723-1735)
MarksNotesInscribed (on the underside, in seal style characters, in blue enamel): Ta Ch'ing Yung-chêng (reign mark of Yongzheng, also called Yung-chêng, fifth emperor of the Qing Dynasty, reigned 1722-1735)
ProvenanceNotesEntered Isabella Stewart Gardner's collection by the 1890s.
