Page 71 - Sotheby's October 3 2017 Chinese Art

fig. 1
White jade gourd-shaped and ram-head teapot, Qing
dynasty, Qianlong period,
Qing court collection
© Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing
(Hall of Swallow’s Happiness), west of the rear
palace of Yangxindian (Hall of Mental Cultivation). display at different locations. It is thus no surprise
The census records the teapot as “enamelled
jade pot with a Jiaqing reign title.” The Palace
Museum and the Rogers teapots are slightly
different in size and proportions - the base of the In detail the three teapots can still be
former is incised with a four-character seal mark
reading Jiaqing yuyong (‘For the imperial use of
the Jiaqing Emperor’) - but both works share the
same basic form with an enamelled handle.
The Woolf jade teapot is of a similar type, also
with a handle and incised with Jiaqing’s reign
mark (figs 2 and 3). Sir Woolf was an enthusiastic
collector of Chinese jades from 1956 to 1999, and
he specialised in nephrite and jadeite.
The Woolf jade teapot was acquired by an
antiques dealer in London in the 1930s.
Subsequently, it passed through collections in
Austria and New York. In 1963, it was acquired at
Sotheby’s New York by the antique dealer John
Sparks, from whom Sir Woolf acquired it. The
teapot was published in Chinese Carved Jades,
edited by S. Howard Hansford, and by Sotheby’s
in 2013 in The Woolf Collection of Chinese Jades
alongside other masterpieces in the collection,
which consists mostly of Qianlong period works.
After 1999, the Woolf collection has been
managed by the Woolf Charitable Trust, and the
majority of it has been in a dedicated exhibition
space in Belgravia, London, available to the public Where did the form of the jade vessel with a
by appointment.
Qing imperial jades often come in the same
forms and decorative patterns. This has much
to do with the emperors’ preferences. Imperial
archives recorded frequent orders by emperors
to the imperial workshops to create multiples of
fig. 2
White jade teapot, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period, Jiaqing White jade teapot, base, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period,
yuyong mark
Collection of Sir John Woolf
a design or to recreate a pre-existing design for
that these three jade teapots are similar in form
and design.
distinguished. Aside from the slight discrepancies
in size and dimension, the current lot appears
to have been created earlier. Its spout is slightly
higher than the mouth, and the pins used to
secure the gilt-bronze handle with the jade ewer
are exposed with the absence of pinheads. By
contrast, the other two comparable teapots
have spouts positioned slightly above the mouth
and handles that are secured to the ewer by
pins with pinheads. The current lot was carved
entirely—including the lid and the finial—from
a single block of raw jade. The Palace Museum
example was likewise carved from a single block
of raw jade, except the finial of the cover was
attached by glue, perhaps because the raw jade
was not tall enough to allow the entire cover to be
carved in one piece. On the other hand, the Woolf
teapot shows clear signs of dyeing, which was
a method typically used by the Qianlong period
imperial workshops to hide blemishes and other
imperfections. In summary, the three teapots are
similar in form, but each is a unique masterpiece,
with its own sophisticated design and fine
craftsmanship.
handle originate? Let us trace its history. When
it comes to jade vessels, the great Tang dynasty
poet’s Wang Changling immediately comes to
mind. Jade ewers were a theme in Tang-dynasty
poetry, but only Wang Changling’s line, “An icy
heart in a jade pot,” remains widely known. The
fig. 3
base, Jiaqing yuyong mark,
Collection of Sir John Woolf
image has come to stand for moral purity and
loftiness.
In ancient China, hu referred mainly to two types
of vessels. The first type was the wide-bodied
pot with a tapered mouth, which was the first
type to appear in China. Kun Wu, the legendary
inventor of ceramics who lived during the time
of the Yellow Emperor, created the hu. This is
why Shuozi jiezi defines hu as “the round vessel
of Kun Wu.” Hu is an ideographic character that
suggests a circular or a square form, but without
a spout or handle. The bronze hu of the Shang
and Zhou dynasties were mostly wine and ritual
vessels. These hu appeared before the time of
written history and persisted until the Ming and
Qing periods. The Shang and Zhou-period bronze
hu became the classical form of the vessel and
the source of subsequent hu vessel designs.
During the Wei-Jin period, the wide-bodied hu
with a tapered mouth acquired a spout and a
handle; this is known as the zhihu (handled ewer)
and gradually became more popular from the Sui-
Tang through the Ming-Qing periods. This form
became especially common in ceramics after the
Wei-Jin period.
No extant jade hu predate the Sui-Tang period,
whether with or without spouts. This may be
because the hu form requires a large amount of
raw jade; in particular the wide-bodied form with
a tapered mouth is much more difficult to create
in jade than an incense burner, bowl, washer,
cup, or dish. Moreover, unlike bronze or clay, jade
as a material cannot be reworked incessantly or
experimented with. It is no surprise, therefore,
that the jade ewers were scarce compared to
other vessels even during the Ming and Qing
IMPORTANT CHINESE ART 69