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Lot n° 39
Asian art and objects - China - A Chinese cloisonné... Lot 39
Asian art and objects - China - A Chinese cloisonné enamel court bead necklace, known as a 'chao zhu' for an official.
Consisting of 100 (of 108) small beads and four large 'fo tou' beads. The three single 'fo tou' beads represent the 'Three Holy Ones' of the Buddhist Trinity. The fourth bead with a second section forming a gourd shape is known as Buddha's Head and has a long extension called 'a bei yun', meaning 'black cloud' that hung down at the back and served as a counterweight as well as an ornament. To the sides of the Buddha's head hang three counting strings of ten beads each. The beads are made of blue cloisonné enamel on open-worked silver metal, the 'fu tou' with bats. An oval cloisonné open-worked ornament to the 'a bei yun' decorated with a dear and crane to one side and a single crane to the reverse, at the end a drop-shaped ornament with a crane to either side. The Buddha's Head has Chinese characters to the adjoining section, unfortunately illegible. China, Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), 19th century -Necklace: ca. 150 cm; 'a bei yun': 52 cm, 8 beads missing, one small bead broken, one small bead with a dent, restrung-.
History
In 1643 the Dalai Lama sent a Buddhist rosary to the first Qing emperor, Shunzhi (1644-1661) which developed into the 'chao zhu'. It is sometimes referred to as a mandarin chain and was part of the official dress of the imperial family and officials, originally as a mark of piety and later as decoration and status. The 'Huangchao Liqi Tushi' (Illustrations of Imperial Ritual Paraphernalia) describes who should wear the 'chao zhu' and how it should be worn. Only the emperor could wear eastern pearls, i.e. fresh water pearls from Manchuria, but other members of the imperial family, civil officers of the fifth rank and above could wear any precious stones they wished. These included amber, jade, lapis lazuli, filigree enamel and carved woods. Originally the counting string were used to keep track of the number of times the prayers were recited to Buddha, but in later times they were used in place of an abacus for rapid and discreet calculations, especially useful for mandarins on duty .
A near identical enamelled court necklace is illustrated and described in Elizabeth Herridge's publication 'Bringing Heaven to Earth - Chinese Silver Jewellery and Ornament in the Late Qing Dynasty', Ianthe Press ltd., London, 2016, Pages 170-173, Catalogue entry 50.
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