Enamel Beauty Shoulder Teapot with Lotus Motif

Its formal name is Painted Enamel on Porcelain. Later generations named it Guyuexuan, while it is known as Rose Porcelain overseas. Enamel porcelain first emerged in the late Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty and saw further refinement during the Yongzheng reign.

In the late Kangxi period, under the imperial order of the Kangxi Emperor, the technique of painted enamel on copper was successfully applied to porcelain bodies, creating a new type of polychrome porcelain. It was produced in the largest quantities during the Yongzheng and Qianlong reigns, and rarely made after the Qianlong period. Enamel porcelain was a rare artwork exclusively for the appreciation of emperors and empresses, under strict court control. The plain white porcelain blanks were supplied by the Imperial Kiln in Jingdezhen and transported to the imperial palace. Under imperial supervision, court painters meticulously decorated them in the Enamel Workshop of the Imperial Household Department’s Imperial Workshop, with court calligraphers inscribing poems and markings. At present, Dayatang enamel porcelain generally requires four separate kiln firings to complete.