拍賣筆記 vol.262 乾隆御題：磁州窯白無地瓷枕，1768年御題詩，128萬港元成交 - An Imperially Inscribed 'Cizhou' Ingot Pillow, Song Dynasty, Inscription Dated To The Wuzi Year Of The Qianlong Period Sold for 124,460 GBP

128萬港元成交，對於乾隆御題來說，是不是太便宜了？

磁州窯收藏趨勢大熱，特別是以鉅鹿縣出土的「鉅鹿」瓷器，更是受到藏家的熱捧。這件磁枕本身並非罕見，但乾隆御題改變了其價值預期。留給藏家的最大的問題就是，如何驗證這個銘文是真的，如果沒有非常明確詳細的記錄，將很難說服市場。

Cizhou ware has become increasingly sought after in recent years, particularly pieces unearthed in Julu County, which have drawn strong attention from collectors. This ceramic pillow is not, in itself, a rare example; however, the Qianlong imperial inscription dramatically alters its expected value. The greatest challenge for collectors lies in authenticating the inscription—without clear and detailed provenance records, it will be extremely difficult to convince the market of its authenticity.

紳士收藏

宋 磁州窰白釉枕清

乾隆戊子（1768年）御製詩 《乾隆戊子仲夏御題》款

拍賣開始

2025 November 5, 06:30 PM HKT

估價

100,000 - 200,000 GBP

描述

御製詩

磁中定州猶椎輪，丹青弗藉傳色紛。

懿茲芳枕貭樸淳，蛤粉爲釉鋪以匀。

鉛氣火氣淨且淪，粹然古貌如衜人。

通靈一穴堪眠雲，信能忘憂能怡神，

至人無夢方宜陳，小哉邯鄲漫云云。

鈐印：「乾隆御賞」、「幾暇怡情」。

Width 23 cm, 8 in.

出處

Maurice de Bosdari（約1891-1971年）伯爵舊藏，此後家族傳承

乾隆帝（1735-1795年在位）兼具精鑒慧眼、詩家文采與清賞雅懷，由此御題詩可見一斑，其宋瓷庋藏宏富、御題詩文浩繁，皆冠絕古今。紫禁城中，乾隆自幼濡染康、雍二朝慕古藏珍之好，對鑒古研史、求索美器情有獨鍾。自青年登基至耄耋退位，畢生所作詩文逾四萬首，悉數載入清宮典籍，為後世研誦至今。

乾隆詠瓷之作雖爲數不多，然造詣出衆，題刻於宋瓷之篇尤爲珠璣。據載，瓷上題詩共一百九十首，宋瓷者可計一百五十餘，詳見馮先銘，《中國古陶瓷文獻集釋》，台北，2000年，頁271起。

題刻此詩之瓷為一銀錠式枕，釉色白若凝脂，為十二至十三世紀中國北方所產，窰口位於今河北省。乾隆將其歸爲定窰，頗具玩味，然現代考古及藝術史研究表明，此枕當出自民窰磁州窰系。觀台窰址第五地層出土一件，釉未施滿，可資對比，錄《觀台磁州窰址》，北京，1997年，圖版LXXII:2；江西省白舍宋代窰址亦出土一殘片，器形、釉色皆似，且見劃花，《江西南豐白舍窰》，北京，2008年，彩圖47。誠然，乾隆鑒瓷於當時已頗有造詣，而題詩宋瓷卻誤判窰口之事亦不在少數。台北故宮藏有一鈞瓷枕（藏品編號故瓷017431），所刻御題詩將其歸爲尚待考證之柴窰，又藏一青白瓷枕（藏品編號故瓷017795），題詩歸之爲哥窰；更有甚者，將一汝窰盌題爲鈞窰，該汝瓷名品後為大維德爵士雅蓄，現藏倫敦大英博物館（藏品編號PDF.3）。

乍觀此枕，雖不事雕飾，然乾隆詩意自現 。釉色凝盈如膏脂，恰似素絹待筆，以寄遐思，君王仰臥其上，仿佛千古興榮入夢來。美國國立亞洲藝術博物館策展人分析此詩及「椎輪」一語時指出，乾隆將枕之素净視作天家儀範，猶如遠古車駕（詳見F1942.21注1），進而以之比喻美德。

乾隆在位六十載，常將心儀詩作反復題刻於新得藏品。另存二枕題有此詩，均刻隸書，其一，形作橢圓，飾牡丹紋，藏故宮博物院，北京，錄《懷抱古今──乾隆皇帝文化生活藝術》，澳門藝術博物館，澳門，2002年，編號51；其二，由華盛頓特區佛利爾美術館經T. H. Ching於1942年購藏（藏品編號F1942.21），錄何翠媚、Bennet Bronson，《Splendors of China's Forbidden City. The Glorious Reign of Emperor Qianlong》，菲爾德博物館，芝加哥，2004年，編號293。後者與本件尤似，無論大小、形制乃至隸書筆法，皆如出一轍。三枕雖題詩同，然本件與詩文所述「定窰」之素潔最相契合。詩中有「淪」，意爲漣漪，卻未提牡丹、赤斑等，或可推斷，乾隆因此枕氣質純净乃起詩興，另外二例則仿效本件而題同詩。

《清宮内務府造辦處檔案》雖載述欠詳，卻記有本件流傳之關鍵綫索。乾隆三十三年十月初三日（即1768年11月11日，此詩作於同年），北京皮裁作檔案載：

「初三日庫掌四德催長五德筆帖式富呢呀漢來說太監胡世傑交

定磁涼枕一件（隨座）

宋錦一塊

傳旨將宋錦添配白綾裡成做夾墊一件欽此」

雖無詳述表明此枕曾交由玉作或懋勤殿題刻，然其入宮時間與乾隆提筆作詠枕詩前後吻合，恐非偶然。另一「定磁涼枕」記錄明確，曾於乾隆五十三年（1788年）五月入如意館「刻詩」。

同類題詩枕尚有少數存世，多庋於兩岸故宮，市場流通僅見一例。比一定窰孩兒枕，藏台北故宮（藏品編號故瓷004923），刻《詠定窰睡孩兒枕》（乾隆三十八年即1773年作）；及一磁州窰枕，藏北京故宮，刻《詠古瓷枕》（乾隆五十三年即1788年作），見高曉然，〈乾隆御制詩瓷器考論〉，《故宮學刊》，2011年，頁297。再比二枕，刻乾隆詩《白瓷枕》（乾隆十一年1746年作），其一，定窰劃花如意枕，底部行書刻詩描金，藏台北故宮（藏品編號故瓷017426），其二，形同本件，作銀錠式，山中商會庫出，售於紐約Parke-Bernet Galleries拍賣行1943年，編號715，後入Rosalind Ching Pastor（1920-2019年）雅蓄，至2021年3月15日又經紐約邦瀚斯釋出，編號86。

乾隆御題詩亦見刻於清宮其他珍藏，如台北故宮數例，展於《得佳趣: 乾隆皇帝的陶瓷品味》，2012年，其中幾件詳見余佩瑾，〈Consummate Images: Emperor Qianlong's Vision of the Ideal Kiln〉，《美成在久》，卷42，第8期（2011年11-12月），頁80-88；一定窰葵口盤，題詩作於乾隆四十一年即1776年,售於香港蘇富比2015年4月7日，編號3201；一古陶罐，題詩作於乾隆三十四年即1769年，大維德爵士舊藏，後售於倫敦蘇富比2012年11月7日，編號211。

PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN

A rare and important imperially inscribed 'Cizhou' ingot pillow, Song dynasty, Inscription dated to the wuzi year of the Qianlong period (in accordance with 1768)

Session begins in

November 5, 06:30 PM HKT

Estimate

100,000 - 200,000 GBP

Description

carved with a seventy-eight-character Imperial inscription with two seals reading Qianlong yu shang ('Imperially admired by the Qianlong Emperor') and jixia yiqing ('a few moments of leisure‘）

Width 23 cm, 8 in.

Provenance

Collection of Count Maurice de Bosdari (ca. 1891-1971), and thence by descent.

Among ceramics, this of Dingzhou is like a spokeless wheel,

Its colouration does not depend on spreading coloured pigments.

This fine and fragrant pillow, its quality rustic and pure;

Powdered clamshells have the glaze spreading over smoothly.

White lead and flames have left the piece pure and rich with ripples;

So pure in appearance, ancient like a Daoist sage.

Communing with the caves, rising sleeping in the clouds,

Truly you can forget your worries, you can refresh your mind.

The perfect man no longer dreams, all is quite in order,

But the lesser man of Handan will mutter on and on.

Composed by the Emperor, midsummer of the wuzi year (1768)

This poem, inscribed by imperial command, stands as a testament to the critical eye, poetic vision and connoisseurial spirit of the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1735-1795). The Qianlong Emperor is well known both for his substantial art collection, which included an unsurpassed assembly of classic Song ceramics, and for his vast legacy of poems. Raised in the imperial palaces surrounded by the astonishing collections of his father and grandfather, the Qianlong Emperor soon developed a personal taste for the archaic, for China’s history and for beautiful things. Composing poetry in his youth, as an Emperor from the throne, and even after his abdication, over his lifetime Qianlong is said to have written over forty-thousand poems; preserved in imperial compendia and still studied and admired to this day.

While only a relatively small proportion of his overall oeuvre, the Emperor’s writing in praise of ceramics remain among the most notable of his works – particularly those inscribed on Song dynasty antiques. Of the hundred and ninety recorded pieces on ceramics, more than a hundred and fifty of these deal directly with Song wares; see Feng Xianming, Annotated Collection of Historical Documents on Ancient Chinese Ceramics, Taipei, 2000, p. 271ff.

The present poem appears inscribed on a fine cream-glazed pillow of ingot shape, produced around the twelfth or thirteenth century in northern China around modern-day Hebei province. Interestingly, while the Emperor describes the pillow as an example of celebrated Ding ware, modern archaeological and art-historical evidence would suggest the present piece was probably produced at one of the more vernacular ‘Cizhou’ kiln sites. Compare a partially glazed example of this form excavated from the fifth stratum of the Guantai kiln complex in The Cizhou Kiln Site at Guantai, Beijing, 1997, pl. LXXII:2 and a sherd of similar form and tone with traces of an incised decoration, excavated from the Song dynasty Baishe kiln site in Jiangxi province, in Jiangxi Nanfeng baishe yao, Beijing, 2008, col. pl. 47. Indeed, while the Qianlong Emperor was undoubtedly the leading connoisseur of his day, many surviving Song pieces with Qianlong inscriptions feature poems misattributing them to other (usually more esteemed) kiln sites. Compare a Jun-glazed pillow preserved in the National Palace Museum (accession no. gu ci 017431), inscribed with a poem attributing it to the semi-mythical ‘Chai’ kilns; a Qingbai-glazed ingot pillow (accession no. gu ci 017795), said to be from the famous ‘Ge’ kilns; and the famous Ru bowl in the Percival David Collection, now in the British Museum, London (accession no. PDF.3), misattributed to the Jun kilns.

While initially unassuming on first glance, the present pillow exemplifies the message of Qianlong’s poem. Subtly rippling with an understated cream glaze, the pillow appears as a blank canvas for the Emperor’s musings; a pure antique whispering of the ancient past while he lay upon it. As the curators of the National Museum of Asian Art point out in their analysis of the poem and the term chui lun (‘spokeless wheel’), the plainness of the present pillow is taken by the Qianlong Emperor as a symbol of its imperial elegance – like that of an ancient chariot; vide infra, F1942.21, note 1 – while this plainness also presents itself as a metaphor for moral virtue. 

Over his sixty-year reign, the Qianlong Emperor would return to his favourite poems again and again, and commissioned them to be recarved on newly acquired pieces in his collection. Indeed, two other extant pillows bear the same inscription as the present piece in closely related hands of clerical script (lishu): the first, an oval pillow with peony decoration preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Life of Emperor Qian Long, Macau Museum of Art, Macau, 2002, cat. no. 51; and the second, purchased by the Freer Gallery of Art (National Museum of Asian Art), Washington, from T. H. Ching in 1942 (accession no. F1942.21), included in Chuimei Ho and Bennet Bronson, Splendors of China's Forbidden City. The Glorious Reign of Emperor Qianlong, The Field Museum, Chicago, 2004, cat. no. 293. This second pillow is particularly comparable with the present in its size, ingot form and inscription, the clerical script of which shares almost every idiosyncrasy with the present and was almost definitely inspired by the same hand. Notably, while both of these pillows share the same inscription as the present, neither quite fits the poem’s description of a totally plain and pure piece of so-called ‘Ding’ ware. With no mention of carved peonies or ruddy stains in the poem (other than perhaps the reference to lun, ‘ripples’), it seems highly probable that these other examples were only inscribed with the present poem after its initial composition inspired by the present piece in all its purity.

Although somewhat unclear in their phrasing, contemporaneous Records from the Imperial Workshops (Qinggong neiwufu zaobanchu dangan), give invaluable clues into the provenance of the present pillow. On 11th November 1768 – the same year the present poem was composed – records from the tailoring workshop in Beijing (Picaizuo) note:

“On the 3rd day [of the 10th lunar month], Supervisor Side, Foreman Wude, and Clerk Funiya Han reported that Eunuch Hu Shijie delivered one ‘Ding’ ceramic cooling pillow (and stand) and a piece of Song dynasty brocade.

“An order was given to add a white damask lining to the Song brocade and make it into a [matching] cushion. By Imperial Command.”

While not explicitly recorded as having passed to the Jade workshops or Maoqindian (Hall of Merit and Diligence) for inscription, the chronology of this piece arriving in the imperial halls just as the Qianlong Emperor turned his brush to the subject of pillows is unlikely to be coincidental. Compare another more explicit reference to a “‘Ding’ ceramic cooling pillow” passed to the stone carvers of the Ruyiguan (Office of Wish Fulfillment) in fifth month of Qianlong’s fifty-third year (1788), “to be inscribed with a poem.”

Of the handful of other comparable inscribed pillows that still survive, almost all remain in the collections of the Palace Museums in Beijing and Taipei, and only one other known example appears to have ever come to market. Compare a Ding pillow moulded in the shape of a recumbent child, preserved in the National Palace Museum, Taipei (accession no. gu ci 004923), inscribed with a Poem in Praise of the Sleeping Boy Pillow of the Ding kilns (Yong Dingyao chui hai’er zhen, 1773); and a Cizhou pillow in the Palace Museum, Beijing, inscribed with a poem In Praise of an Ancient Ceramic Pillow (Yong gu ci zhen, 1788), apparently unpublished but discussed in Goa Xiaoran, “Qianlong yuzhi shi ciqi kaolun / Studies of Ceramics with Inscriptions of ‘Imperial Poems’ Composed by Emperor Qianlong”, Gugong Xuekan, 2011, p. 297. Also compare two more pillows bearing the Qianlong poem Bai ci zhen (White Ceramic Pillow, 1746): the first, a ruyi-shaped Ding pillow with sgraffiato design, inscribed on the base in gilt semi-cursive, still preserved in Taipei (accession no. gu ci 017426); and the other, closely related to the present in ingot form, sold from the stock of Yamanaka and Company, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 1943, lot 715, and again more recently from the collection of Rosalind Ching Pastor (1920-2019) at Bonhams New York, 15th March 2021, lot 86.

For further examples of Qianlong poems inscribed on other Palace antiques, compare several pieces preserved in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the Museum’s 2012 Exhibition Obtaining Refined Enjoyment, The Qianlong Emperor's Taste in Ceramics, some of which are described in detail in Yu Peichin, “Consummate Images: Emperor Qianlong's Vision of the Ideal Kiln”, Orientations, vol. 42, no. 8 (November-December 2011), pp 80-88; a Ding bowl inscribed with a poem dated in accordance with 1776, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 7th April 2015, lot 3201; and an archaic pottery jar from the Percival David Collection, inscribed with a poem from 1769, sold in these rooms, 7th November 2012, lot 211.