A great painter

Could you imagine, the painting you are now looking at fetched 30 million US dollars in an auction in NY. Who is the painter?

Supervisor's sleeping

He even painted a portrait of the Queen of England at Buckingham Palace. When asked how she felt about her portrait, the Queen remarked that it was interesting. However, Prince Philip said that "it will be something mad if painted by that man".

Portrait of the Queen

Lucian Freud's self portrait

The painter was Lucian Freud who passed away in 2011. He was considered by art critics the greatest artist of the century. He was a German Jew who fled to the UK during WWII. He liked to paint people in a style that is confrontational. He always had his subjects sitted naked in front of him and he liked to see and paint them as though they were animals. He even painted his own portraits in nude. He held his solo exhibition when he was in his twenties and became a famous painter. In his paintings of male sitters, he revealed too much of the male flesh that art dealers in UK worried that no one would buy his paintings. However, he was uncompromising and would not change his style of painting. When interviewed by the media, he remarked that he paints what he sees and not what others want him to see.

His personal assistant

A male sitter

After his death, his personal assistant inherited his studio in London. He left the studio in its original state when the painter had his last painting session before he died in 2011 at the age of 88. He only opened it to the press once when a reporter was interested to take a look inside his studio.

Tubes of paints and brushes left as they were after his last paint session

Discarded linen used by Lucian

Lucian Freud was truly a remarkable painter of modern time and had a unique way of painting people.

Another of his painting that shows his unique style

An artist & friend of Lucian 

Qianlong's three chained-seals

There are three valuable imperial seals used by Emperor Qianlong during his reign of the Qing dynasty more than 200 years ago. The three seals are linked together with 3 three separate chains so that they become inseparable. Qianlong had several thousands seals (now kept in the palace museum) made from all sorts of materials from jade, chicken blood stones and shoushan stones. He actually liked the three chained-seals so much that he would carry them wherever he went. The seals had been passed down to his descendants and the last emperor of Qing dynasty, Puyi.



Qianlong Emperor

Three chained-seals of Qianlong

The three-chained seals were made from the most precious type of Shoushan stone known as Tianhuang. The seals and chains were all carved from a single piece of raw boulder of Tianhuang and there was no evidence of any piece being artificially joined together. The intricacy of these seals shows that over 200 years ago, craftsmen had already grasped the skills and ability to carve intricate designs on stones to make seals. To carve three seals linked together using chains from a single boulder, a lot of precious materials would be wasted. Imagine the cost of Tianhuang in today's price (over 20000 per gramme), the cost to make the seals would be incredibly high. Anyway, it is almost impossible to find a Tianhuang boulder of that size (even if one is willing to sacrifice this precious material as it is wasteful to carve such a thing). This shows the wealth of the emperor during those days. A small Tianhuang seals weighing just 300 g was auctioned for over 11 million dollars in China recently. Another Tianhuang paper weight weighing 200 g was auctioned in HK for over 40 millions.

 

Raw Tianhuang stones

The seals were made in two square shapes and one oval shape with the inscriptions that characterized Qianlong's style of governing the nation and his yearning for peace and harmony.

 

An interesting tale about the seals is that when the Qing dynasty collapsed and the last emperor, Puyi, was forced to leave the Imperial Palace in1924. Puyi took with him some treasures from the palace and the three chained-seals and stayed in a residence of another prince.

In 1925 with the help of Japanese spies, Puyi went to Tianjin where he stayed for 7 years before leaving for Changchun in Manchuria. During the war, he was made a puppet emperor of China based in Mongolia by the Japanese forces. The Japanese were using him as a figure head to justify their relentless occupation of the north east of China.

When world war 2 ended and the Japanese forces finally surrendered, Puyi tried to flee Changchun. As he was not able to carry most of the treasures he took with him when he fled the Capital, he only took the seals with him. However, he was stopped by the Russian forces just when he was about to catch a flight out of Changchun. He was later brought back to Moscow as a prisoner of war.

When the civil war ended, Puyi was sent back to China and became a war criminal in a prison in Beijing. Soon after, the Korean war broke out and everybody in China was raising funds for the war. While in prison, Puyi had an idea. He wrote to the government willing to donate the thee  chained-seals as his own contribution to raise funds for the war. He did it to find favour with the government hoping for an early release from prison.

After many incidents and turmoil, the three chained-seals of Qianlong emperor finally returned to China. They are now house in the palace museum in Beijing. One could imagine the importance and value of these seals. Of all the treasures Puyi could have taken with him while he was on the run, he only took with him the seals. They must have meant a lot to him.

Palace Museum in Beijing

In the 90s, the government issued a stamp featuring the three chained-seals. This stamp would show the world the use of Tianhuang in seal carving, its monetary and historical value as a precious material.

The King of kings in world of pots

There is a teapot on display in a folk museum in Shanghai which is priceless. Even if you were to offer 200 million dollars, the owner would not sell it. When teapot makers from Yixing visit the museum, they would kneel in front of the teapot and pay their respect. Some would secretly take a photo or make some measurement hoping to make an exact duplicate of it. Others don't mind paying 20 000 dollars just to touch it. So, what sort of teapot is it? Why is everybody so mad about it?

Potter kneel in front of a pot

Paying respect to a pot?

This is a teapot made by the legendary Shao Dahen during the mid-Qing dynasty. In the County Annals of Yixing, it was written that teapots by Shao Dahen were rare and priceless as there were very few of his teapots left behind. He was considered the best potter ever lived in Yixing. Even the grandmaster Gu Jingzhou had deep respect and admiration for his works.

 

Figurine of Shao Dahen by Xu Siewtang



County Annals of Yixing

Shao Dahen's Duozhi pot

  

So who actually owns this teapot? Why is it so special?

 

There was a rumour that a certain Pan family in Yixing had in their possession a mysterious pot by Shao Dahen, passed down from 3 generations. The pot was acquired from a certain magistrate during the Qing dynasty. Xu Sihai, a navy officer, heard the news and immediately went to the Pan family to take a look. Xu was a famous collector and he was truly mad about teapots until his friends called him the teapot addict. He once spotted a Qing dynasty teapot on a roadside stall and the seller wanted 500 dollars for it (as he knew  Xu was an officer, had to be rich), unfortunately he only had 200 dollarsin his wallet. Immediately he removed a newly bought Swiss watch from his wrist and gave it to the seller. The seller was still not satisfied, he then removed a sweater which he was wearing (100% wool and newly knitted by his wife) and gave it to the seller. With that he was finally able to buy the teapot he spotted (imagine how is life without the warm clothing in winter, no wonder he was also called the teapot crank).

 

 

When Xu reached the house of the Pan family, he saw the teapot on display on a table. The owner would not allow him to touch the teapot. As he walked around the table and examined the teapot in every direction possible, he was sweating profusely due to excitement and joy. The king of all teapots was really awesome. As he described it, the teapot was so well made that every dimension is accurate and perfect, not a bit too much nor too little (in his own words). You could look at it at any angle and it would still look awesome and perfect. Critics said that the legendary Gu Jingzhou made two similar teapots and yet they were no match to this one (Gu himself admitted that his pots were no way near this perfect one).

 

When Xu asked for the price, it was a hefty 30000 dollars. In the 60s, that was indeed an incredible sum. As Xu was only an army officer earning tens of dollars a month, the sum of 30000 dollars looked impossible to him. Yet, in his heart this was a teapot he had to collect no matter the cost. Eventually he bargained down to 23000 dollars plus some paintings and calligraphy work. He must have sold his house and borrowed heavily to raise funds for this teapot. Don't forget his nicknames, teapot addict and crank, he would everything to achieve this goal of owning the king of all pots.

 

After he bought the teapot by Shao Dahen, everybody came to his house to have a look at the king of all pots. That created a stir in the local media. Immediately a Taiwanese businessman offered Xu 100 thousand US dollars to buy the teapot. 3 months later, an American offered him 3.6 million yuens to have the teapot. At that time with 3 million dollars, one could easily buy 3 bungalows in downtown Shanghai. Xu was not tempted by this huge financial gain as he regarded the teapot as belonging to the people of China and he would not let it leave the nation. Of course now the price has increased to 200 millions and yet he had no intention of selling it as he considered it to be priceless because of its historical value (Gu Jingzhou's pots are already selling for more than 10 millions in auction markets).

 

In the 80s, he quited his army career and learned art from an artist Tang Yun. He began to make teapots in Yixing and even won a gold medal in 1985 for a pot he designed and made (the pot is now in a museum in San Fransisco).

 

Tang Yun inscribed on a pot made by Xu

 

He had collected over 1200 fine Yixing teapots from the Ming dynasty to the Republic Era (post 1911). In 1987, he opened his own museum in Shanghai and housed all his collection in it. Of course, the flagship of the museum is the teapot by Shao Dahen (the Duozhi Pot) where teapot lovers from all corners of the world would one day want to come and see this wonderful work of art, a master piece.

 

 

 

Today, Xu Sihai is still busily making teapots. He teams up with renown artists and calligraphers to produce artistic teapots for the Shanghai Expo and the Beijing Olympics. As he said he needs to sell teapots to raise funds for his only passion in this world - to collect more and more Yixing teapots for display in his folk museum.

 

His early work on display in the Yixing factory.

 

A dog by Xu Sihai

  

许四海: 字紫云，1946年生，盐城人。师从国画大师唐云，作品“夏意”获国家金牌奖。与多位书画名家合作的“海春壶”“寿翁壶”“啸天壶”和“云海壶”堪称一绝，并为“八运会”“香港回归”“上海国际茶文化节”等特制专用茶壶。1989年新加坡成功举办个人作品展，号称江南壶怪。许四海是一位在海内外享有盛誉的紫砂陶艺大家，也是一位极富传奇色彩的鉴藏家。

一套向2010年上海世博会献礼的紫砂“世博汉字壶”于2010年2月18日在沪面世，传承中华数千年历史的汉字与中国传统手工紫砂工艺珠联璧合而成为精品茗具。中国世博纪念品研发工作室与素有“江南壶怪”

 

Another Shao Dahen's pot (in a museum in Hong Kong)

Ancient jade story

More than two thousand years ago in China (during the Spring & Autumn/Warring States Era), there was a man by the name of Bian He in the Kingdom of Chu who accidentally found a jade boulder of exceptional quality. He knew that it could be carved into a masterpiece of art or a State Seal, so he presented the jade boulder to the king of Chu.


Bian He found a jade boulder of superb quality

 

 

Bian He presented the Jade to the King

The king had the jade inspected by the craftsmen of the court and was told that the jade was of inferior quality. The king was angry so he had Bian's leg amputated for cheating him with a stone of inferior quality.  When the king died and a new king took over, Bian again presented the jade to the new king as he knew that the jade was really excellent and it was a pity that no one appreciated it. Again the craftsmen of the court examined it and told the king it was very ordinary.



The craftsman examining the jade

The king was again furious for being cheated. He then ordered Bian's other leg to be chopped off for deceiving a king. Bian was very sad and frustrated not because of losing both legs, but because nobody would believe him that the jade was really good. Years passed and yet another new king of Chu took over. Without legs, Bian asked to be carried to the palace and presented again the jade to the king. This time, the craftsman of the court examined the jade and realised that it was indeed a jade of exceptional quality. The king was very happy and rewarded Bian handsomely. He immediately ordered the craftsmen to carve the jade into a national seal and called it He's Jade (in honour of Bian He who found it). It became the symbol of supreme power in the kingdom.

Craftsman working on the jade

He's Jade became so famous that it was the desire of every king in the land (there were many kingdoms during the Warring States era) to possess it for it represented supreme power and sovereignty.

Every king's desire to own He's Jade

During those turbulent years of the Warring States era, the king from the State of Qin (where Shi Huang Di, the First Emperor of China, came from) heard about the jade and sent an envoy to the State of Zhou (by this time, the jade was in the hand of the king of Zhou). He wanted to use 16 cities in his state to exchange for this Jade Seal known as He's Jade.

 

Qin's envoy offered 16 cities for He's Jade

Could you imagine what was the worth of a city that time? All the kings during the Warring State era fought bitterly against each other just to expand their own territory. The king of Qin (Shi Huang Di's grandfather) was willing to sacrifice 16 cities for a piece of jade. One could imagine the importance of He's Jade as a symbol of power and sovereignty.

16 cities for the jade

 

Wars broke out because of the jade



As the Stae of Qin was strong and powerful, the king of Zhou did not want to risk a war with Qin and he asked Ling Xiangrhu (later became the prime minister of Zhou) to bring the jade to Qin to carry out the exchange. With only a servant with him, Ling travelled to Qin alone. Knowing that the King of Qin was very crafty, Ling knew that he would not honour his promise and might forcefully acquire the jade without giving 16 cities to the state of Zhao. Even the exchange was not successful, Ling was able to think of a plan to bring the jade safely back to the State of Zhou. This was recorded in history book and there is even a Chine proverb in this episode, Returning of He's Jade to Zhou.

As kingdoms came and gone, He's jade was eventually lost and nobody knew where it was. Many kings and emperors continued to hunt for it but without success. It was said that the first Ming emperor had spend large resources to look for the jade in his entire life but still could not find it.

Since no one had actually seen the jade, it is interesting to know if He's Jade is of really good quality. What type of jade is it? Some said it could be a Hetian jade as green jade (jadeite form Burma) was virtually unheard of during those years. Then again, by today's standard, He's jade might just look ordinary.

 

Jade of impeccable quality

  

Seal made from Hetian jade