Imperially Commissioned Set of Ink Sticks with Images and Poems of Famous West Lake Sites

Cleveland Museum of Art

Imperially Commissioned Set of Ink Sticks with Images and Poems of Famous West Lake Sites

Date
1780–94
Medium
Molded ink in yellow, blue, black, green, red, brown, white, and gold
Culture
China, Qing dynasty (1644–1911), Qianlong reign (1736–95)
Department
Chinese Art
Institution
Cleveland Museum of Art
Object ID
121904

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

Each ink stick depicts one of the Ten Scenes of the West Lake on one side, and a corresponding imperial poem on the other, composed on emperor Qianlong’s fifth southern inspection tour in 1780. Notably, the ink sticks’ colors and shapes correspond with the poems’ respective content. An inscription on one ink stick identifies this set as a gift to the emperor by Jiang Lan, an official from Anhui, a province known for its excellence in ink, paper making, and printing. Imperial records note that 10 more sets of West Lake inks were presented as a tribute by Gioroi Giking (Chinese: Jueluo Jiqing, 1753–1802), a Zhejiang provincial governor and a bannerman (Manchu native). The inscription in mother-of-pearl inlay on the box’s cover says: Imperially Made Gold Inscribed Poems of Images of [the Ten] Sights of the Westlake .

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Provenance & credit

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Credit line
Gift of Henry W. Kent
Provenance
?–1942: Henry W. Kent [1866–1948], Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art | 1942–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

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