Top-Grade Glassware (Continued)

Besides the few highly skilled painted-enamel artisans brought in from abroad, some local workers were also employed by the Imperial Glassworks. According to the records, they probably came from two famous glassmaking centers in China: Boshan in Lu Province and Lingnan. Boshan had already begun producing glass during the Yuan Dynasty.

Moreover, the Kangxi Qing Palace archives recorded the names of two Lingnan-born craftsmen at the Imperial Glassworks. They were Cheng Xianggui and his household apprentice, Zhou Jun. The records stated that they entered the palace in 1709 and returned to Lingnan in 1715.

The Qing Palace archives also recorded that two other European missionaries made significant contributions to the glassworks. One was the French Jesuit Ji Wen. He came to Hua in 1740, and before entering the monastery, he had already been a glass and crystal artisan.

He came to Hua as both a clockmaker and glassworker. Emperor Qianlong ordered him to work at the glass workshop in the Old Summer Palace, where he specialized in producing glass of different colors and materials, European-style glass, and ornate decorative glassware for court use and display.

Another Jesuit glassworker, Tang Zhizhong, was also from France. He was born in Rouen and entered a Paris monastery in 1727. He went to Canada in 1730, returned home in 1735, and did not set out for Hua until 1740.

He had worked at a glassworks in Rouen, possibly a royal workshop, and was skilled at making glass sheets. After arriving in Hua in 1741, he immediately received an imperial order to work at the Canchikou Glassworks, where he remained for more than two years.

According to records from the Qianlong period, the glass vessels were first fired and blown at the Canchikou factory, then sent to the Old Summer Palace workshop to be painted.