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fig. 4 fig. 5
White jade archaistic handled vessel, hu, Qing dynasty White jade ‘lotus’ ewer, Qing dynasty
Qing court collection © Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing
© Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing
dynasties. The Palace Museum collection figures, and floral subjects. However, Ming jade restored. Prince Yi submitted these to the court.”
contains only 240 examples (including 110 with ewers are generally inferior in both material
spouts and handles), roughly divided equally quality and craftsmanship to Qing ones. This is in The workshop records of the Qianlong period
between Ming and Qing periods. part because Khotan jade mines during the Ming, indicated that the production of jade ewers
much more active than before, still yielded raw increased dramatically compared to the
The earliest extant jade ewer dates from the Tang jade of lesser quality and much smaller amounts Yongzheng period. These records also mention
dynasty and was excavated in Luoyang, Henan of high-quality jade than during the Qing. jade ewers with handles, but because they are
in 1956. It is of the first type, with a round body vague on the identifying details, it is difficult to
and a flat mouth, and without a handle, which During the Qing dynasty, jade ewers with handles relate each record to an extant object.
was rare during the Tang and Song periods and developed into a very rich array of forms, and
became more common during the Yuan and the quality of their materials improved markedly Extant jade ewers with handles from the mid Qing
especially during the Ming and Qing. Ewers of this compared to any previous period. They come period can be divided into two types. The first is
type from the Qianlong period were mostly made in white, green and emerald, but the former two the type with an enamelled gilt-bronze handle, the
in imitation of archaic bronzes (fig. 4). colours predominated over others. Jades made subject of this article (lot 3613). The other type is
for the court mostly used high-quality white jade made entirely from jade, including both body and
The second type is the jade ewer with a spout (fig. 5). handle. Of the latter type only one example has
and a handle, which emerged as an imitation of survived, and it is in the collection of the National
a ceramic prototype before the appearance of According to the records of the workshops of Palace Museum, Taipei. The form of its body is
the spoutless jade ewer. The earliest extant jade the Qing imperial court, jade ewers were already identical to the current lot, with a ram-head spout
ewer with a spout and handle dates from the produced in the first year of the Yongzheng reign, and melon-shaped body, except that on each
Song dynasty. The jade ewers mentioned in Tang but this work was mostly limited to restoring section of the body are additional layers of flower
poetry are actually of the first type. ewers remaining from previous reigns. Between petals carved in low relief. Most importantly,
the second and eleventh years of the Yongzheng three intertwined jade strips are fastened to
During the Ming and Qing periods, jade ewers reign, few jade ewers were made or restored, and semicircular, lotus petal-shaped pieces on the
with handles suddenly increased drastically in the entire Yongzheng period production of jade body to form the handle. Overall the Taipei ewer
number. During the Ming, tall and large jade ewers numbered only 27. The majority of these required even more raw jade. It was housed in the
ewers, often with handles located above the body, were of the first type. Jade ewers with handles Palace of Eternal Longevity (Yongshou gong).
predominated, but small and short jade ewers are documented only in the records of the first
with round and wide bodies and with lowered year of the Yongzheng reign. A jade ewer required a large amount of high-
handles also began to appear. The latter’s form is quality raw jade. During the Kangxi and early
close to that of a teapot, and was likely influenced “On the tenth day of the second month, Prince Yi Qianlong reigns, the jade-producing Khotan and
by ceramic teapots. Moreover, these small and submitted a jade apricot-leaf-shape ewer (with a Yarkent regions were occupied by the Dzungars,
short jade ewers vary greatly. They come in zitan base)… a jade teapot, a jade garlic-mouth which limited the availability of raw jade. The
shapes ranging from that of a lotus blossom and ewer, a jade ewer with a handle… the prince court resorted to modify jades remaining from
flower petals to square, round and hexagonal. ordered that these be restored to new. So it was former dynasties or use raw jade sent as tribute
Some of them are inscribed in embossed poetic obeyed. On the sixteenth day of the ninth month, or smuggled into the interior, resulting in limited
lines or carved with niches featuring landscapes, a jade ewer and a jade ewer with a handle were production. In the tenth year of his reign, the
IMPORTANT CHINESE ART 71
