Page 75 - Sotheby's October 3 2017 Chinese Art

Yongzheng Emperor ordered his ministers to
“find some good raw jades” because the court
lacked them. In the twenty-fourth year of the
Qianlong reign, the Qing army defeated the
Dzungar Khanate definitively and cemented its
rule of what is now called Xinjiang, administering
it through a regional government.
Beginning in the twenty-fifth year of the Qianlong
reign, the four sub-Khanates of Xinjiang began to
send raw jades to Beijing, which later developed
into a formal system of biannual tribute of 4000
jin of raw jade, once in spring and once in autumn.
In fact, at its height the system contributed some
300,000 jin of raw jades. In the fifty-sixth year of praise and affection. Qianlong wrote over seventy
the Qianlong reign, one tribute consisted of 5585
blocks of raw jade.
The availability of raw material created a strong
foundation for the golden age of jade under the
Qianlong Emperor. Court records indicate a surge
in jade production after the twenty-fourth year of
his reign.
In the thirty-third year of the Qianlong reign
(1756), a minister stationed in Yarkent Khanate
sent as a tribute a pair of green jade flower-
shaped basins. This was the Qianlong Emperor’s
first encounter with Mughal jade. The diligent
and curious Emperor soon investigated its origin,
and decided that it came from Hindustan, the
region southwest of Badakhshan and bordering
northern India. He wrote an essay and a poem Moreover, Ming period jade ewers often featured
commemorating it. Afterwards, he referred to all spouts issuing from animal masks. Qing period
jades originating from foreign regions “Hindustani ewers featured spouts issuing from animal
jades.” We now know that these “Hindustani masks, beasts and dragon mouth. The imperial
jades” originated from an area larger than workshops of the Qianlong court had the best
Hindustani, encompassing present-day India, enamelling technique of the period. Thus there
Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Turkey, but Qianlong’s was no technical barrier to the local creation
shorthand label has remained conventional. of jade teapots such as the current lot. These
jade ewers are masterpieces which seamlessly
Among these Hindustani jades, those produced combined domestic Chinese taste with the formal
by the Mughal Empire (1526-1857) were of the influences of Hindustani jades.
highest craftsmanship. Their vivid depictions
of the natural world, especially of various flora, In summary, in material and form, the four extant
attracted the Qianlong Emperor’s profound jade teapots with handles, including the one
at the National Palace Museum, Taipei, were
essays and poems about Hindustani jades. created at roughly the same time and were all
influenced by Hindustani jades. They likely were
The Emperor’s fondness also encouraged created after the thirty-third year of the Qianlong
imitation by Chinese jade craftsmen. The teapot reign. Although the Palace Museum and Woolf
currently on offer was originally thought to be pots bear Jiaqing reign marks, they may not
an example of Hindustani jades. Indeed, the have been created during the Jiaqing reign. It is
form of the ram-head spout and melon-shaped likely that they were created during the Qianlong
sections, and the interior sectioning of the body, reign and used by the Jiaqing Emperor, who also
are reminiscent of Mughal ram-head hilts and had his reign mark inscribed on other Qianlong
melon-shaped goblets. However, the teapot’s period wares still extant in the Palace Museum
enamelled handle and polished base and the collection. The four jade teapots in question
incised lines of the ram head are quintessentially should therefore be dated to the period after the
Chinese. Already during the Ming dynasty, thirty-third year of the Qianlong reign and before
Chinese craftsmen created melon-shaped vases the Jiaqing Emperor took defacto control of the
with both exterior and interior sections. This government (1799).
technique continued to be used during the Qing.
IMPORTANT CHINESE ART 73