A cloisonné enamel ice-chest and two covers on hardwood stand


Qianlong six-character mark, 19th/20th centuryOf square tapering form, encased within sheets of metal and divided into three registers and flanked by two handles, decorated around the exterior with various auspicious birds, insects and flowers, the cover comprising two panels depicting magpies on a gnarled prunus, all on a blue diaper-pattern ground, suported on a dark wood stand with four cabriole legs, the aprons carved with meandering floral scrolls. With stand 88cm (34 5/8in) high x 72.5cm (28 5/8 in) square. (4).
|十九/二十世紀 銅胎掐絲琺瑯花鳥圖冰盒「大清乾隆年製」楷書仿款Large ice chests of this type were designed for use in the palaces during the hot summer months. They were filled with ice and placed in certain rooms used by the Imperial family. The ice was used to cool drinks, fruit and sweet snacks, as well as cooling the surrounding area and somewhat alleviating the oppressive heat of Beijing, which the Manchu emperors found so uncomfortable. While usually placed on stands, like the current example, these chests were sometimes placed directly on the floor beneath tables to cool both the food and those seated at the table. In winter ice blocks were cut from the Inner Golden River and were stored in the five ice vaults in the Forbidden City near the Gate of the Great Ancestors. During the period from the first day of the fifth month to the twentieth day of the seventh month specific members of the Imperial Household Department received an allocation of two blocks of ice per day. Surviving records indicate that originally the ice chests were made of wood, and usually lined with lead, like the example in the Victoria and Albert Museum illustrated by C.Clunas in Chinese Furniture, London, 1997, p.99, no.89, or lined with zinc as in the case of the example in the Musée Guimet illustrated by M.Beurdeley, Chinese Furniture, Tokyo, 1979, p.95, no.130. However, by the 18th century ice chests destined for the apartments of the empress and dowager empress are recorded as being made of plain bronze with pewter linings. See one of a pair of cloisonné enamel ice chests, Qianlong mark and of the period, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Metal-bodied Enamel Ware, Hong Kong, 2002, pl.129.