During feudal times, wealthy Vietnamese clients, including imperial rulers, mandarins and merchants, commissioned patterned porcelains (ĐSKK) from kilns in China. These special-ordered objects were designed to meet the aesthetic tastes of their Vietnamese buyers.
Decorations might include images of Vietnam’s landscape or poems written in Nom or in Han script composed by Vietnamese poets such as Lord Nguyen Phuc Chu, Emperor Thieu Tri, Emperor Tu Duc, mandarins Dao Duy Tu or Tran Nguyen Dan, etc.
ĐSKK were marked with the symbols corresponding to Vietnamese kings. Typical Chinese motifs were replaced by Vietnamese ones. Exported to Vietnam, these porcelain objects were not sold in China.
Vietnamese courts commissioned porcelain from both state kilns and common people’s kilns in Jiangxi and Guangdong from the late 17th to early 20th centuries. Vietnamese ambassadors to the Chinese court were the first to commission these porcelains. Later, wealthy merchant also commissioned this kind of porcelain in China.
| Chinese porcelains made for Vietnamese courts in the Lê - Trịnh |
Over 300 years, ĐSKK were sought out by collectors and antique-lovers who recognized its cultural, aesthetic and monetary value. These porcelains are displayed in many museums and held in collections both in and outside Vietnam.
Huế Royal Antiquities Museum has preserved over 2,000 objects of ĐSKK, mainly dating from the Nguyễn era. The rarest and most valuable ĐSKK dates back to the Le - Trinh era. These ĐSKK were commissioned by Le - Trinh court in Dang Ngoai (Tonkin). Due to the ravages of time and history, most of these objects have been lost or broken.
Luckily, some collectors in Vietnam have managed to preserve some rare objects of ĐSKK from the Le - Trinh era.
| Chinese porcelains made for Vietnamese courts in the Nguyen lords |
On the occasion of the 2018 Hue Festival, Huế Royal Antiquities Museum has invited two antique collestor from Hà Nội - Nguyen Cong Tuan and Ngo Van Truong, and one collector Nguyen Huu Hoang from Hue City, to participate in an exhibition titled “Đồ sứ ký kiểu: Chinese porcelains made for Vietnamese courts in the Le - Trinh, the Nguyen Lords and the Nguyen eras”.
This will be the first time in Vietnam has introduced such fine ĐSKK made over a period of three centuries: the Lê - Trịnh era, the Nguyễn lords era and the Nguyễn era to the public.
Visitors can admire over 70 valuable objects, including 30 rare items from the Le - Trinh Dynasty and exquisite porcelain bowls from the Nguyen lords era. Also included are porcelain bowls made during the reigns of Emperor Gia Long, Emperor Minh Mang, Emperor Thieu Tri, Emperor Tu Duc, and Emperor Khai Dinh.
| Chinese porcelains made for Vietnamese courts in the Nguyễn dynasty |
Used by the reigns of Nguyen Emperors these kinds of porcelain have been displayed in palaces and shrines throughout the Hue Imperial City for centuries.
Everyone is welcome to Long An Hall locates inside Hue Royal Antiquities Museum to celebrate the 2018 Hue Festival, a wonderful chance to discover Hue’s illustrious history.