GUANGZHOU WORKSHOPS, QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)

In the Wanli period (1573-1620), Michele Ruggieri and Matteo Ricci were the first two Westerners allowed access to the cloistered world of the Ming court. Their entry was granted by the promise of two self-striking European clocks, then a technical marvel unknown in China. The mechanical workings of the clocks so impressed the Emperor that the priests were invited to remain within the Palace and asked to instruct Chinese technicians in the art of clockworks. Ricci’s gift initiated an enduring fascination with Western science and in the use and collecting of clocks and the automated toys related to horological technology.
Imperial workshops, operated by Chinese clocksmiths and supervised by European masters, were founded to fulfill the Emperor’s ceaseless appetite for these sophisticated instruments. In 1685, the Kangxi Emperor (r. 1662-1722) lifted the ban on maritime trading with foreign countries, thus establishing the port city of Canton in Guangdong province as the major trading port for East-West exchange. The Guangdong customs administration reserved the finest European examples to send as tribute to the Imperial Court. Records from the mid-1700s document that 40-50 clocks a year were sent from Guangdong to the Emperor.
By the reign of Qianlong (r. 1736-1795), the fad for clocks and automata was well-established and the production of these instruments reached its zenith. As the technology and skills of the clocksmiths developed, the level of complexity increased and clocks were required to be quite ornate, with elaborate jewel-like embellishments, and set with movable figures and musical components. A magnificent Imperial striking musical and automaton ‘Daoist Immortal’ clock sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, in the sale of Magnificent Clocks for the Chinese Imperial Court from the Nezu Museum, 27 May 2008, lot 1504, is a superb example of the lavish treatment and design produced in the Guangzhou Workshops during the Qianlong period (fig. 1). Decorated in Chinese ormolu, enamel, and vibrant translucent paste jewels, and set with ivory-mounted figures, this exceptional example is a striking marriage of Western technology and Chinese iconography. Housed within the two-tiered case, the mechanics control the automated figures, set in motion by a large knob, in the lower section. The miniature figures represent the Four Noble Professions: the scholar fans, the fisherman lifts a fishing basket from the river, the farmer lowers the hoe, and the woodcutter chops wood, while above Shoulao opens and closes his scroll, and two attendants empty their double-gourd vases into a spiraling chute.
The Guangzhou Workshops, together with the Imperial Workshops in Beijing, produced some of the finest examples of these types of works during the Qianlong period. The use of an English clockwork mechanism combined with the finely enameled base suggest that the ‘Fishing Boy’ Automaton was most likely produced in the Guangzhou Workshops in the late 18th century.
Compare, a related ‘Fanning Figure Clock’ automaton dating to the Qianlong period and attributed to the Imperial Clock Workshop in the Forbidden City, illustrated by Liao Pin in Clocks and Watches of the Qing Dynasty From the Collection of the Forbidden City, Beijing, 2002, p. 49. Pl. 18. The ‘Fanning Figure’ example is richly attired in a short blue jacket fastened at the neck and tucked into a long red skirt and like the present example shown kneeling. She holds a feather fan in one hand and a figure citron in the other. When activated, the she raises and lowers her feather fan. The motion bears a striking resemblance to the ‘Fishing Boy’, who raises and lowers his arm to cast his bamboo fishing pole.