DATED BY INSCRIPTION TO 30TH YEAR OF QIANLONG, CORRESPONDING TO 1765 AND OF THE PERIOD

The Qianlong Emperor made six trips to Mt. Wutai during his lifetime, and each time he returned via Baoding in Hebei province. On one such trip in the 26th year (1761), he visited the cotton farm ran by the Wang Family near Baoding at the invitation of the Zhili governor Fang Guancheng (1698-1768). Fang was a great proponent of the cotton industry, and this visit greatly impressed the emperor. As a way to advance his cause, Fang decided to commission pictorial representations of the cotton production process in woodblock print form. This was duly finished in the 30th year (1765), and 16 illustrations together with text commentaries were presented to the Qianlong Emperor. The emperor was delighted and moved to compose a poem to accompany each illustration. These illustrations, together with the text and poems were then adapted as ink moulds in the Palace workshop, and produced as ink cakes by the workshop of master maker Hu Kaiwen in Anhui. These inks are some of the finest examples of Imperial ink making, where details as fine as people’s faces and hair are clearly visible. The current set is in beautiful condition, and even retains the yellow silk dust cover, showing the original packaging.
Compare an identical set of ink cakes from the Qing Court Collection in the Beijing Palace Museum, illustrated in Zhongguo wenfang sibao quanji (1): Mo, vol.1, Beijing, 2007 , p. 164, no. 167 (fig.1) .