Krone - Forbidden City - Emperor Qianlong 乾隆帝

In Anicent time, the dragon was a sumbol of Emperor of China, Son of Heaven.

Emperor Qianlong (乾隆帝) was Emperor Yongzheng (雍正帝) 4th son who succeeded the throne at twenty-five years old and ruled China 60 years. Many thanks to Emporer Qianlong, we get to enjoy reading some of the Chinese classic, and understand some Chinese culture.

The Siku Quanshu (四庫全書) was a project launched by the Emporer to document Chinese classic and cultures. The popular Chinese classic novel  A Dream of Red Mansions was completed during the reign of Qianlong.

During Emperor Qianlong life time, he wrote a few thousands poems. He was also passionate about traditional Chinese culture. Beside Siku Quanshu, he collected various kinds of artworks, including calligraphy, traditional Chinese paintings, books, antique bronze ware, ceramics and study articles among others to protect traditional culture.

Krone honors Emporer Qianlong with a unique, highly detailed, hand painted pen. Unlike most pens which is a fixed shape or form. This special pen doesn't confirm any fixed sharp. It is free form, and shaped like the silhouette of Qianlong.



Click on picture to enlarge.

 We like the style of painting as it it details and the choose of colour is good. However, in our option, the dragon was not executed correctly.

As Emperor Qianlong was a Chinese Emporer, the dragon on his emporer costome must be a Chinese Dragon. The Chinese Dragon is said to have the head of a camel, deer horns, rabbit eyes, ears of a bull, the neck of a snake, stomach of a clam, paws of a tiger, and claws like an eagle.

Does the dragon look at a Chinese Dragon?

In my option, the most important error is the claws.

As mentioned in our previous dragon pen (Parker Duofold Dragon Maki-e Limited Edition), only the Son of Heaven is allow to use five claws. Commoners caught with using five claws dragon was behead. Emporer Qianlong is Emporer of China, therefore, the dragon on his costome should have five, not four, claws.

Other than the dragon which we think is not well executed, the artist workmanship is excellent. Only if the artist could have done a little more home work, this would be a perfect piece of art (fountain pen) worthly of collection.

This beautiful hand painted pen is limited to 288 fountain pens worldwide with the first 18 pieces of the edition available as a exclusive set, which includes an additional pen. This additional pen is also a special free form shape but, is painted as Huixian, the Imperial Consort to the emperor Qianlong.