Inner Heart Sutra Enamel-Decorated Scrolling Lotus Tea Cup,
This Inner Heart Sutra Enamel-Decorated Scrolling Lotus Tea Cup is collaboratively crafted by Master Zhang Jian, a master artisan of Jingdezhen overglaze decoration and piled‑gold technique, together with several other master craftsmen.
The interior is decorated with blue and white calligraphy of the Heart Sutra, while the exterior features enamel-decorated scrolling lotus. The gilded foot is carved with a swastika pattern. Its creation requires a cross-collaboration of blue and white porcelain, carved porcelain, and enamel colour techniques.
Inner Blue and White
The Heart Sutra is written in an elegant, fluid style in blue and white on the interior.
Inner blue and white is one of the porcelain decoration techniques used in combination with enamel colour.
Scrolling Flower Pattern
The exterior is painted with enamel-decorated scrolling lotus, with clear veins.
The lotus branches and leaves twist and curl gracefully, full of dynamism, with a gorgeous colour scheme.
It is produced in a matching pair: one with a pink ground and one with a green ground.
For its continuous, unending structure, it symbolizes
endless vitality — hence the scrolling pattern is also known as the
Longevity Vine.
The scrolling pattern originated around the Han Dynasty and flourished in the Southern & Northern Dynasties, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.
Enamel Porcelain
Beyond its elaborate and exquisite painting, the Guyuexuan Palace Lantern teapot requires five separate kiln firings to complete, with the risk of damage in each firing.
In the Qing Dynasty, enamel porcelain was originally produced exclusively for the appreciation of emperors and empresses.
Enamel is a special colored pigment made through artificial firing.
Before the 6th year of the Yongzheng reign (1728), enamel materials relied on imports from Europe.
After that period, the
Imperial Workshop of the Qing Court successfully developed more than 20 kinds of enamel pigments, marking the pinnacle of ancient Chinese polychrome porcelain craftsmanship.
