A Chinese Imperial famille rose 'fori changming' bowl
Qing dynasty, Jiaqing mark and period

A Chinese Imperial famille rose 'fori changming' bowl

Qing dynasty, Jiaqing mark and period

Brightly enamelled with pink medallions enclosing characters forming the phrase 'fori changming', 'the light of the Buddha shines eternally', on a scrolling lotus ground, the base with blue-enamelled four-character mark within a double square, 11.6cm diameter.

清嘉慶 黃地粉彩佛日常明紋盌，籃彩楷書「嘉慶年製」款

佛日常明 (fori changming) may be translated as 'The Light of Buddha Shines Eternally'. The design of the present lot initiated, like many others, during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor, and kept being produced during the reigns of his successors.

The Qing Palace Archives record it as being approved by Emperor Qianlong himself in the first year of his reign: 'On the twenty-second day of the twelfth month in the first year of the Qianlong reign (1736)... the emperor endorsed the production of wares in accordance with the plate prototype featuring a yellow ground with green-enamelled floral motifs and the four characters 佛日常明 (fori changming), applicable on any 7-cun (the Chinese measurement cun is equivalent to 3.2-3.55 cm) plate, 5-cun plate, large bowl and small bowl...' 

Moreover, it is recorded that forty of these bowls were received by the Buddha Hall of Qianlong as ritual offerings bowls, amongst a number of other designs, in the twelfth month of the twelfth year of Qianlong (1747). A later inventory check carried out on the twenty-first year of Qianlong (1756) in the Buddha Hall only found five of this pattern. A further seventeen of the large size, and eighty-three of the small size, were found in an inventory of the Imperial kitchens carried out the following month of the same year. A further inventory of the Imperial kitchen carried out on the fourth year of Jiaqing (1799) finds the number of ‘fori changming’ bowls unchanged, suggesting that production of this pattern may have stopped for some time.

Bowls of this pattern, with a Jiaqing mark, appear to be rarer than their Qianlong counterparts. Imperial records report that, on the eleventh year of his reign (1806), Emperor Jiaqing ordered a further inventory check to be carried out, with the ultimate purpose to halve porcelain production overall; two years later,  in 1808 (the thirteenth year of Jiaqing), thirty new small ‘fori changming’ bowls with Jiaqing four-character marks were presented to court. Later that year, a further inventory check was carried out by the Imperial Kitchens; the Emperor then instructed that the thirty bowls found with Jiaqing mark were sufficient, and to replace this pattern in the forthcoming orders with fifteen yellow bowls and fifteen green ‘peach’ bowls.

Cf. Bowls of this pattern with Qianlong marks include examples sold by Sotheby's, New York, 21 March 2018, lot 669; Christie's, Hong Kong, 28 November 2012, lot 2202, (previously sold by Sotheby's Hong Kong, 20th May 1987, lot 550); one sold by Sotheby's Hong Kong, 27th April 2003, lot 190; one sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 3rd November 1998, lot 967; and lastly, one from the British Rail Pension Fund, sold in Sotheby's London, 13th November 1972, lot 180, (and again in Sotheby's Hong Kong, 16th May 1989, lot 86).

A very similar example to the present bowl dating from the Jiaqing period, also with an overglaze blue-enamel four-character mark to base, is in the collection of the British Museum, accession no. Franks.360.a, also illustrated by H. Moss, By Imperial Command: an Introduction to Ch’ing Imperial Painted Enamels, Hibiya, Hong Kong (1976), pl. 7, p. 33.