Dwarf Potted Trees in Paintings, Scrolls
and Woodblock Prints
 

CHINA -- INCOMPLETE IDENTIFICATIONS


The following are graphic images which have not been identified enough to warrant inclusion with the other portrayals.  Due to the special nature of these subjects, for educational purposes we have included here the entire image as known to us.  (Once identified, only the dwarf potted tree portion will be used.)  Whatever description that has been received from the source and/or has been determined by RJB based on other portrayals is given here.  We need your assistance in further placing these and determining their makers.  Also let us know if you have additional details about the other portrayals -- not all of them are totally identified either.  Send as many details as possible to rjb@phoenixbonsai.com .

This Page Last Updated October 7, 2001


  
"Lu Leng t'ia.  Tchang era."
 A foreigner bearing a stone. 8th cent.  (1)
  

 
Sung Dynasty (A.D. 960-1280)  (2)
Sung Dynasty (A.D. 960-1280)  (2)

 
Dwarf trees on display, Sung or Ming.  (3)
11th cent. (4)

 
 Penjing scenery, 12th cent.  (5)
 Penjing in manufactory on silk, 12th cent.  (5)

 
Shop with the silk, 12th cent.  (5)
Dwarf potted tree in Chinese house, woodblock print, 18th cent.  (5)

 
Dwarf potted trees being ferried.  (6)
Dwarf potted trees being ferried.  (6)

 
Penjing, close-up.  (7)
Dwarf potted trees.  (7)

 
Garden Pan-mou jüan in Peking. 19th cent. (8)
Sü Jang.  Garden with pavilion. Qing era. (8)


 
NOTES

1.  Personal e-mail to RJB from Tomas Melo of Slovakia, October 3, 2001.  From  The art of chinese gardening by Zdenek Hrdlicka.  Compare with Yen Liben, mid-7th century.

2.  Wu, Yee-sun   Man Lung Artistic Pot Plants (Hong Kong: Wing Lung Bank Limited, 1974, Second edition), pg.31.  Both images are poor quality in the book.

3.  Wu, Yee-sun, pg. 39.  "Picture shows dwarf trees being brought in by land and river from various places to be put on display.  From this we know that exhibitions of dwarfed trees were already popular in ancient China as early as during the Sung and the Ming Dynasties."  Over a dozen medium-sized pots in light colors, with one blue container and one orange-brick colored pot among them, are on stands which circle the edge of a small clearing between a moon-windowed building and the water.  About a dozen people are viewing the trees in the clearing.  A boatman approaches from the lower right with at least one more flowering medium dwarf plant in his long flat boat.  Is there a significance to the circular display or even to the number of trees shown?  Another copy, slightly cropped, can be found in The art of chinese gardening by Zdenek Hrdlicka, per personal e-mail to RJB from Tomas Melo, October 3, 2001.

4.  Personal e-mail to RJB from Tomas Melo, October 3, 2001.  From  The art of chinese gardening by Zdenek Hrdlicka.

5.  Personal e-mail to RJB from Tomas Melo, March 27, 2001.  Pictures "found in library." 

6.  Lesniewicz, Paul   The World of Bonsai (New York: Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. 1990), end pages.

7.  Personal e-mail to RJB from Tomas Melo, July 11, 2001.

8.  Personal e-mail to RJB from Tomas Melo, October 3, 2001.  From  The art of chinese gardening by Zdenek Hrdlicka.

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