(c) 2016 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Guyue Xuan

Chinese, active 17th century

SchoolImperial Glass Works

BiographyFor more information about Ku-Yeuh Hsuan, see:
S.W. Walters. Oriental Ceramic Art, Collection of W. T. Walters (New York, 1899), p. 399-405.
Carl Skiff. The Land of the Dragon: Snuff Arrives in the Orient (Pittsburg, 2014), pp. 22, 33.
The works of this artist are signed in the character Hu, which if taken separately, can be read as Ku-Yueh (acient moon). Hu adopted the studio name of Ku-Yueh Hsuan (Acient Moon Pavillion). Ku-Yueh Hsuan was the director the Imperial glass works in Peking around 1680. The style of glass, now referred to simply as Ku-Yueh Hsuan, is associated with the reigns of Yung Cheng (Yongzhen Emperor, reign 1722-1735) and Ch-ien Lung (Qianlong Emperor, reign 1735-1796).

Nancy Berliner, Curator of Chinese Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, examined this object on 22 September 2020, stating that we have the artist who possibly created this snuff bottle written in the Western and incorrect way, instead of Ku-Yueh Hsuan, it should be written as Guyue Xuan.
Nancy Berliner agrees that she is not sure if U18e70 was actually made by Guyue Xuan or perhaps the maker's mark is indeed a forgery. She recommends we keep the artist as Guyue Xuan until proven otherwise. A. Eliopoulos 9/25/20

Guyuexuan, often translated as Ancient Moon Pavillion, is commonly used as a name of a highly detailed enamel decoration originally found on glass snuff bottles. One possibly explanation to this name is that the reason why the pavillion was name "Ku" meaning old or ancient and "Yueh" meaning moon, is because the two words together make up the surname "Wu" which in that case could be the studio name of Director Wu of the Imperial Glass Works in Beijing around 1680, which incidently matches with the first appearance of this decoration in the Kangxi period, Qing Dynasty. The main difficulty in the productiopn of enameled glass was in the fact that the melting point of the enamels was almost the same as that of glass why only small articles such as snuff bottles could be made. In the Qianlong period the Director of Imperial potteries, Tang Ying, was asked to adapt this decoration onto porcelain. https://gotheborg.com/glossary/guyuexuan.shtml; accessed 12/9/2022

Person TypeIndividual

Last Updated8/7/24

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