A pair of imperial spectacles set with crystal lenses, Qing dynasty, 18th / 19th century | 清十八 / 十九世紀 御製水晶眼鏡

Gifted to Mr. Brochart, 12th May 1901. 

Brochart 先生獲贈於1901年5月12日

Imported into China during the Yuan dynasty, corrective lenses were solely reserved for the rich and powerful up until the Ming period due to the high cost and rarity of these imported goods. A burden to use, these lenses were often singular handheld instruments, more closely resembling magnifiers than eyeglasses. During the later years of the Ming dynasty, the knowledge to produce such lenses was slowly acquired by the craftsmen of Hangzhou, and the city became an emerging site for China's earliest domestic production of corrective lenses. Sun Yunqiu (1628-1662), a scholar and inventor from Suzhou who was well versed in geometry, physics, and especially optics, visited these shops in Hangzhou early in his career and sought to bring this knowledge back to his birthplace. Through much trial and error, Sun was able to greatly advance and expand the use of corrective lenses. Not only was he able to produce around 24 different lenses to cater to a wider range of eyesight problems by switching the use of glass lenses to crystal ones, he also invented spectacles that could be worn on the nose, greatly increasing the daily convenience of these lenses. Sun's invention was immediately met with great success and the use of eyeglasses quickly popularized and spread to the rest of the empire. Suzhou became known as the center of production for these crystal lenses.

During the reign of the Qianlong Emperor, the workshop of Chu Sanshan appeared and was known as the best amongst the many in the city (see Mao Xianming, 'Gugong zhenchang de yanjing [Spectacles in the collection of the Palace Museum]', Zijincheng, 2002, pp 34-36). Believed to be a student of Sun, Chu further advanced the technology developed by his teacher. The labels on the present lot, indicate that these came from 'the old shop of Sanshan' and were 'made by Chu Yaotian', which points to this well-known workshop, with Chu Yaotian possibly a descendant of the famous Chu Sanshan. 

Surveying the existing spectacles in the Palace Museum, Beijing, Mao discusses the use of these corrective spectacles by the Qing emperors, citing that the Qing Court Collection contained both spectacles gifted by Western missionaries to the emperors as well as ones made domestically, including ones from well-known commercial workshops. The Yongzheng, Qianlong and Xuantong Emperors all had a personal collection of spectacles. In particular, the Yongzheng Emperor was recorded to be especially fond of them: Qing records documented that the Emperor once had spectacles placed everywhere around him, including his bedroom and at Yuanmingyuan, so that he could use them whenever he needed to. Compare a closely related pair, with huangtong ruyi-shaped mounts, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in ibid., p. 33. 

The yellow embroidered spectacle case may further indicate an imperial association. See a related embroidered eyeglass pouch, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei (accession no. 贈雜000047N000000000). Compare several embroidered spectacle cases with a similar silk cord, one, attributed to the 18th to 19th century, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (accession no. 30.75.687), three, attributed to a later date, in the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis (accession nos 45.15.3, 31.50.172a and 30.23.175), and illustrated in Robert D. Jacobsen, Imperial Silks: Ch’ing Dynasty Textiles in The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, vol. II, Minneapolis, 2000, pls 356, 359 and 360.