Untitled (Tea at the courtyard)

Credit line: On loan from Professor Sum Yee Loong

For many, the Qianlong period (1736-1795) is seen as the height of porcelain production. This is due to the unmatched quality and technique of the potters that worked in the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen. There we can see a continuation of the revival of archaic and classical forms as favoured by the preceding Yongzheng emperor, as well as the combination and perfection of enamelling and moulding techniques. Emperor Qianlong (1711-1799) had a taste for the extravagant, so with the exception of monochrome pieces, porcelain particularly from the latter part of his reign was often highly and densely decorated. Qianlong porcelain can be broadly divided into three categories: guanyao (imperial), minyao (porcelain for the people), and export.