While collectors of late Qing and Republic Chinese cloisonne are usually familiar with the names Lao Tian Li, De Cheng, and De Xing Cheng, the works of the Yang Tian Li atelier seem to be unidentified and unknown. They were never signed.
Judging by the appearance of the name in early 20th
century travel guides to Peking, Yang Tianli was a notable factory, claiming to
have been established in 1874. They participated in the 1915 Panama-Pacific
Exhibition in California and had a large advertisement in the 1917 edition of
the Thomas Cook visitors guide “Peking and the Overland Route.” They were the
only cloisonne shop recommended in the Peking section of the 1924 edition of
the Japanese Railways “Guide to China.”
The only description we seem to have of actual Yang Tianli
works are the two dozen pieces listed in the 1917 auction of the Alfred Owre
collection in New York. Copied below are the sections I found of interest in
the catalog and the descriptions of the 24 works by “Yang Tien Li,
Peking.” The introduction is very quaint
reading, illustrating the era’s general admiration for Japan and the
disparagement of China as backward – an unlovely validation of Edward Said’s
“Orientalism” thesis. Three of the 24 Yang Tianli works are attributed
“Nineteenth Century,” and three as “Modern.”
The catalog itself can be easily viewed at The Internet Archive, and a
PDF is available from the University of Illinois. [links in captions to
following pictures]
I went through my archive of cloisonne pictures harvested
from the internet over the past 13 years, as well as sold items listed at various
auctions websites, trying to find examples that matched exactly as possible the
listings in the Owre catalog. This is
not to claim that the following pictures are undoubtedly Yang Tianli works,
merely to give an idea of what they might have looked like.
The attributions are entirely speculative, as
no signed Yang Tian Li pieces have surfaced, nor have any invoices or other
paperwork demonstrating origin. Hence the red question marks beside the
listings.
The similarity of some of the works to the style of the Lao
Tian Li factory might be due to a family relationship between the two
workshops. Yang TianLi was established
in 1874, whereas Lao Tian Li was established in 1901; Lao Tian Li perhaps thus
had assistance from an older manager and stable of artists in order to hit the
ground running, so to speak. This may have been a significant advantage,
because 1901 was one year after the destruction caused by the 1900 Boxer
Rebellion. Perhaps by no coincidence, 1900 was the year the owner of the De
Cheng factory died and the De Cheng workshop effectively ended. Although De
Cheng is listed among the cloisonne exhibitors at the 1915 Panama-Pacific
Exhibition, the factory was carried on into the following decades by a relative
under the De Xing Cheng title.* Yang TianLi, on the other hand, survived the
wreckage of the rebellion and evidently remained a popular outlet despite the
Nationalists moving the capital from Peking to Nanjing in 1927 and the 1937
invasion by Japan once again caused devastation in the cloisonne industry.
I’ve tried to list source links when available so you can
follow up for more information and pictures, but some pictures were from old
eBay auctions, long since evaporated from the internet.
All slides can be expanded by a click; then opening a slide
in a new tab will enable further magnification.
Feel free to comment.
Do let me know if you think you’ve discovered another item matching a listing description, and if I agree I’ll add it to this post.
Relevant books:
A Dance with the Dragon: The Vanished World of Peking's
Foreign Colony by Julia Boyd
*珐琅局 : 中国近代景泰蓝名作坊研究与收藏 by 周春兵 · 2022
*Enamel Bureau: Research and Collection of Famous Cloisonné Workshops in Modern China by Zhou Chunbing, 2022
Tip o’ the hat to Y.C. and N.B.
for photos and research pointers.
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| https://ia903205.us.archive.org/23/items/cataloguedeluxe2pana/cataloguedeluxe2pana.pdf |
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| https://archive.org/details/pekingoverlandro00thom/page/n207/mode/2up |
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| https://archive.org/details/pekingoverlandro00thom/page/n207/mode/2up |
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| https://ia902908.us.archive.org/28/items/guidetochinawith00japa/guidetochinawith00japa.pdf |
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| https://archive.org/details/illustratedcatal00amer03/page/n3/mode/2up?q=yang |
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| https://ia800504.us.archive.org/26/items/illustratedcatal00amer03/illustratedcatal00amer03.pdf |
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| https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/97610159_chinese-cloisonne-tray-with-gallery-sides-flat-rock-nc |
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| https://bridgesovertime.com/collection/pair-19th-century-chinese-cloisonne-vases/ |
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| https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/51263062_chinese-qing-period-cloisonne-scroll-weight-co-laois |
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| https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/130677670_-a-dragon-and-bat-cloisonne-opium-tray-china-late-qing-dynasty-circa-1900-this-heavy-ireland-dublin |
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| https://www.rm-auctions.com/en/asian-arts-feb-2023/28902-the-chinese-art-collection-of-francois-nuyens-belgian-engineer-in-tianjin-china-from-1905-until-1908 |
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| https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/146114029_the-chinese-art-collection-of-francois-nuyens-belgian-engineer-in-tianjin-china-from-1905-brugge-wv |
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| https://www.rm-auctions.com/en/asian-arts-feb-2023/28902-the-chinese-art-collection-of-francois-nuyens-belgian-engineer-in-tianjin-china-from-1905-until-1908 |
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| https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/181918479_a-pair-of-early-20th-century-chinese-cloisonne-candlesticks-skipton-north-yorkshire |
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| https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/89575535_pair-of-chinese-cloisonne-candlesticks-camperdown |
