Vintage and antique bonsai pots in Singapore

During my recent stay in Singapore, I was privileged to view a private collection of vintage and antique bonsai pots. It was probably the most interesting experience of the entire trip. The collector specialises in purple sand ware from Yixing, Shiwan ware from Foshan and porcelain. The oldest pots in the collection date from Ming Dynasty, while the most recent pots date from Cultural Revolution. A sample of purple sand pots is shown in the images below. This ware is usually fired to 1100°C with the clay remaining a little porous.

Purple sand is a generic term which is divided into three clay types based on their colour. They are: purple clay, orange clay and yellow clay. Examples of pots made of purple and orange clay are in the images above, while images below show pots made of yellow clay or pots decorated with it.

Seals on Yixing pots are important. The information they carry influences the value of the pot. Both seals in the images below are from Cultural Revolution period. The one on the left tells us that the pot is made in Yixing, China and give us the name of the craftsman. The one on the right is in Chinese and English. Apparently, bonsai pot makers working in Yixing weren’t allowed to sign their pots between 1965 and 1975. 

The next part of the collection was Shiwan ware. Typically, these pots had patterns created by application of lighter clay with translucent green glaze. They are fired to stoneware temperature (1300°C) and the clay is fully vitrified. See a sample of Shiwan bonsai pots in the images below.

The collection also featured Shiwan storage jars and large planters, which can be seen in the images below. They make exquisite stands for displaying bonsai too.

There was also a number of exquisitely decorated porcelain pots. I wasn’t sure about their age, but some of the oldest bonsai pots are made of porcelain. In fact, I recently came across a mention of such pots in Kakuzo Okakura’s ‘The Book of Tea’ published in 1906. He writes: “With the development of ceramics during T’ang and Sung dynasties we hear of wonderful receptacles made to hold plants, not pots, but jewelled palaces.” I can’t imagine this passage implying anything other than porcelain pots. Anyway, some of the “jewelled palaces” are shown below.

Bonsai pot, however, is not the first thing that comes to mind when you hear porcelain and there was plenty of that other stuff. Images below show imperial porcelain bowl, calligraphy water pourer, porcelain pillow, vases and urns. I was even introduced to the wonderful and weird world of vintage porcelain bird feeders (quite collectable they are).

Small pots form a special part of this collection and there was a multitude of them. Despite their small size they can fetch high prices. They are very collectable and some of them are shown below.

Finally, I want bring up something used for displaying bonsai, but rarely mentioned in Australia - Chinese ceramic stands for flower pots. Below you can see a couple of them. The one on the left is leached and rustic and could be used for displaying Japanese bonsai, while the one on the right is more ornate and would be more suitable for Chinese penjing. 

I spoke with the owner of this amazing collection about many things that day. He told me that twenty years ago when he started collecting, he was perceived in main land China as a ‘wealthy’ Singaporean. With the help of a local scout he could obtain antique and vintage pots at reasonable prices. Now, the times have changed and he almost reversed the roles with his scout in China. His contact in China is willing to buy back many of his pots for good money, because now they will fetch substantial prices in China itself. These days, he said, wealthy Chinese buy a lot of old Chinese pots from Japan as well. I also asked the collector how many friends does he have with whom he could have a meaningful conversation about ceramics in his collection. His reply was: “Not that many, probably four.” Well, he is much better off than me in this regard.

Bonsai soil mix used in Singapore

After finding how different bonsai soil mix used in South India is (see http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/bonsai-soil-for-chennai-climate.html), I was curious about the bonsai mix used in Singapore. A couple of Singapore bonsai growers told me that they mix two components ‘burned soil’ and ‘top soil’. Burned soil (bottom left image) is imported from Malaysia. Apparently it is collected from oil palm plantations after they have been on fire. The top layer of clay soil gets baked and that’s what is collected. It is pretty much their equivalent of Akadama. What they call ‘top soil’ (bottom right image) is a good quality compost with coarse particles. The soil mix they use in Singapore is not that different from the one I use in Sydney after all.

Penjing at Singapore Chinese Garden

I am continuing with the entries about bonsai in Singapore. It was raining cats and dogs when I visited Singapore Chinese Garden, so all photos I took that day are a bit dark. The garden offers beautiful vistas augmented by classic Chinese architecture. It is all there: majestic pagodas, serene lakes, graceful pavilions, meandering canals, elegant bridges and quiet cloisters. You can see some of it in the photos above and below.

The part of the Chinese Garden that houses penjing trees is called the Garden of Abundance and at the time of my visit it was under renovation. Nevertheless, most of the penjing collection was still on display (images below).

The penjing collection there is quite large and features reasonably old trees. Looking after such collection would be a mammoth task, hence the trees are not in immaculate condition. Nevertheless, the collection is quite impressive and distinctly Chinese in its character. A small sample of the trees is shown in the images below.

One part of the display was devoted to rock landscapes, some of which are shown in the images below.

The weather was so miserable that I couldn’t pay a lot of attention to bonsai pots. However, one pot caught my attention. It was a large and garish piece, which featured eight Taoist immortals. See it below for yourself.

For posts about bonsai gardens I visited in China see these:
Tiger Hill Penjing Garden, Suzhou: http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/tiger-hill-penjing-garden-suzhou.html
Penjing Garden at Shanghai Botanic Gardens: http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/penjing-garden-at-shanghai-botanic.html
Penjing Garden at the Humble Administrator’s Garden, Suzhou: http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/penjing-garden-at-humble-administrators.html

Demonstration by Pat Kennedy: Making a ‘Cracked Pot’

During his demonstration at ‘Bonsai by the Harbour 2012’ Pat Kennedy also made two of his signature ‘cracked’ pots. Pictures below show how he makes the round pot. These pictures would be handy for those who use potter’s wheel.

1 – Throwing a cylinder.
2-3 – Creating grooves on the outer surface.
4 – Applying sodium silicate on the outer surface.
5 – Drying the outer surface with a heat gun.
6 – Applying a coat of white clay.
7-11 – Expanding the outer rim of the pot.
12 – Cracks are examined on a stopped wheel.

He attaches the feet later when the pot is leather hard. After drying, the pot is bisque fired and given a ‘wash’ with iron oxide to highlight the cracks. After that it is fired to stoneware temperature.

Demonstration by Pat Kennedy at ‘Bonsai by the Harbour 2012’

This weekend I attended ‘Bonsai by the Harbour 2012’. The venue is beautiful (see the view above). The most interesting demonstration was by Pat Kennedy and below is the summary of how he makes one of his free-form pots.

1 – Making a clay model of the bottom part of the pot. It has to be 12% bigger than the intended size (clay shrinks when dried and fired).
2-3 – Putting a clay wall around the model to contain plaster.
4 – Making the clay surface smooth.
5 – Putting plaster into water. Avoid introducing air bubbles into the mix.
6-7 – Pouring liquid plaster onto the model to create a mold.
8-9 – Removing clay from the mold when plaster hardened.

10 – Plaster mold.
11 – Strips of clay are thorn from a 5 mm thick clay slab.
12-15 – Strips of clay are joined together to form a pot.
16 – Finished pot ready to be dried. Dry pot is bisque-fired and ‘washed’ with iron oxide to highlight the overlays. After that the pot is fired again to stoneware temperature.
17-18 – Finished pot (different from the one made at the demonstration).

Bonsai display at Singapore Botanic Gardens

I visited Singapore Botanic Gardens with the sole purpose of seeing its bonsai display. The display pavilion is very nice and the trees are exhibited well (see image above). Smaller trees are displayed on the shelves inside the pavilion, while larger trees placed on individual stands outside the pavilion (see image below).

A few smaller trees are shown in the image below.

For a small sample of the larger trees see image below.


Although it was worth the visit, I couldn’t help noticing that the plants there could do with some extra love and attention.


For posts about bonsai gardens I visited in China see these:
Tiger Hill Penjing Garden, Suzhou: http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/tiger-hill-penjing-garden-suzhou.html
Penjing Garden at Shanghai Botanic Gardens: http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/penjing-garden-at-shanghai-botanic.html
Penjing Garden at the Humble Administrator’s Garden, Suzhou: http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/penjing-garden-at-humble-administrators.html

Penjing at Lian Shan Shuang Lin Monastery, Singapore

Last month, in Singapore, a friend-in-bonsai recommended to visit ‘Lian Shan Temple’. The taxi driver knew the place and told me that in the olden days the area was a crime district and the temple served as headquarters for triads and secret societies. Those days a long gone, but martial arts are still practiced in the temple. On my arrival, I found that its actual name is Lian Shan Shuang Lin Monastery and these days it is lost in a sea of high-rise apartment buildings. However, entering the monastery grounds is like stepping back in time. Elaborately decorated buildings adorned with carefully trained trees (see images below).
  

Have a closer look at some of those trees in the images below.

Garden trees were complimented by gorgeous rocks, some of which were petrified wood (see images below).

Check out images below. Image on the left shows a large rock used as a container for growing water lilies, while image on the right shows a rock used as a seat.

The monastery was also generously sprinkled with all sorts of potted plants. They were in open spaces, courtyards and passageways (see below).

Some of the potted plants were as large as the plants in the garden (images below).

Some of the potted trees looked grand, but large pots carved out of single pieces of granite were as impressive (see images below).

Finally, in one of the passageways I found penjing trees shaped as Chinese characters (see images below).

Pest of the month: The Mango Plant Hopper

This summer my back yard had been invaded by another plant pest. This time it’s the Mango Plant Hopper (Colgariodes acuminate). The Mango Plant Hopper is an introduced species and it resembles a lot of other plant hoppers belonging to the family Flatidae. It can be easily confused with another exotic pest the Citrus Plant Hopper (Colgar peracutum) or with native plant hoppers from genus Siphanta among others. Although my garden was full of them I couldn’t see any damage caused by them. Plant hoppers use their piercing mouth parts to puncture the plant and feed on its nutrients. May be they fed on lignified stems where puncture marks are not obvious or may be my bonsai trees are not their host plants. 
 

Cheng Tai Nursery, Singapore

During my trip to Singapore this month I visited Cheng Tai Nursery. It functions as a regular plant nursery where you can get your usual plants, but it also specialises in oriental style garden trees, penjing and bonsai. They have thousands of them and some are very impressive specimens. The average size of the trees was larger than I am used to. As you can see from the images in this entry a lot of the trees are taller than 1 meter. Anyway, I’ll let the pictures talk. A couple of images below are the largest oriental style garden trees in the nursery.

Images below show three main kinds of plants they use for large trees. They are (left to right): Wrightia, Podocarpus and pine.

There were also lots of large fig trees (image below).

 

Below more figs. They were very impressive.

I can confidently say that the king of bonsai in Singapore is Water Jasmine (Wrightia religiosa). See the images below.

Wrightia trees looked as impressive when they are defoliated. See images below.

Other large bonsai included something that looked like Casuarina.

There were trees of other plant species in the large bonsai category (images below).

And finally, they had plenty of smaller trees, which would come under small to medium bonsai size in Australia. As you can see from the close-up images of those trees (see images below), they have undergone quite a bit of training and refinement.

There were also a few larger ‘Chinese scholar rocks’ or ‘viewing stones’ for sale (see images below).

In one of the sheds at the nursery, I saw an elderly Chinese gentleman wiring a Podocarpus tree. I tried to start a conversation, but he couldn’t speak English. In a desperate attempt I tried to speak Malay and it paid off. I asked him how many people style bonsai trees at the nursery, because there were thousands of them. He said he is the only one. Even though all mundane tasks at the nursery are done by the Bangladeshi workers and he only styles the trees, it still remains a gargantuan amount of work. When he saw that I am genuinely interested in his work he took me to the back of the shed to show his personal collection. It was a lovely assortment of fairly refined shohin bonsai (see images below). Later on I was told that this gentleman is a well-known and respected figure in the local bonsai community.

To get to Cheng Tai Nursery take the train to Choa Chu Kang station and then get bus no. 975. There is a bus interchange right outside the station, but you need to take a 1 min walk to Choa Chu Kang Avenue 4, cross it and catch the bus over there. The bus stop where you get off is called Cheng Tai Nursery and you have to travel for about 4 or 5 stops.

More of bonsai in Chennai

Last year, during my trip to India I was lucky to get a glimpse of the Chennai bonsai scene. I attended a monthly meeting of Bodhi Bonsai Association and saw bonsai collections of two club members.

I am back to India this moth and just attended another meeting of Bodhi Bonsai. It was good to be with this group again. It is the only bonsai club in a city of 20 million and their membership is growing steadily. This time another club member invited me to see his bonsai collection (images above and below). I was overwhelmed by a variety of tropical plants. Just like last time I was impressed by fig trees, but this collection also featured impressive Adeniums and Jades among many others (images blow).

Pest of the month: The Punctate Flower Chafer

For the past three years the soil of my bonsai trees have been getting infested with curl grubs. The worst case was a round pot with inner dimensions 4 X 20 cm, which had 24 of these bad boys (photo on the left). I reared some of them to find out what they are. They turned out to be the Punctate Flower Chafer Neorrhina punctatum, family Scarabaeidae (photo on the right). I was fighting them by repotting my plants, because even submerging the whole pot in insecticide solution doesn’t always kill them.