Mark sources cited
以薦嘉客 · mark readings
Follow the words around the outside of the bowl, then look for them again on its lid. On this lobed covered bowl, 以薦嘉客 is repeated on both components.
On this page
Start with the reading
以薦嘉客
Read the phrase as Yi jian jiake, approximately “to offer to honoured guests”. The catalogue transcribes 以荐嘉客 in simplified characters and describes incised clerical script. This is a phrase of hospitality, not a personal name or a maker seal. The two rubbings reproduce two inscriptions on one set. [1]
A documented vessel
Palace Museum catalogue no. 158 records a late-Qing mallow-lobed covered bowl with three-fruit decoration. The description explicitly places the words outside both bowl and lid; the following page shows the components. Overall height is 10.5 cm, mouth diameter 13.8 cm and foot diameter 6.9 cm for this object.
How far the evidence goes
Repetition helps connect the decoration of lid and bowl, but it does not identify who made them or prove that any similarly inscribed lid belongs to another bowl. Nor does the phrase establish a particular tea ceremony. Compare the inscription alongside the lobes and fruit decoration, keeping the catalogue example separate from a general rule of use. [1]
Sources and exact locations
- 故宫博物院编，王健华主编，《你应该知道的200件宜兴紫砂》，紫禁城出版社，2007. ISBN 978-7-80047-648-8 · № 158 · 244–245 (PDF 247–248)