Page 70 - CHRISTIE'S Marchant Nine Decades of Chinese Art 09/14/17
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MARCHANT: NINE DECADES IN CHINESE ART
727 A PALE GREENISH-GREY JADE ‘THREE The pine, prunus and bamboo are collectively known as
FRIENDS OF WINTER’ BRUSH POT the ‘Three Friends of Winter’, as the pine and bamboo
are evergreen, and the prunus is the frst to bloom each
QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795) year. Together they represent fortitude and uprightness in
adversity, and also carry connotations of longevity. Placed on
The well-hollowed, cylindrical brush pot is carved in low a scholar’s desk, the present brush pot would have reminded
relief on the exterior with two pine trees with spreading its owner of these traditional virtues.
branches beneath cloud scrolls, beside a fowering prunus
branch and two canes of bamboo. The jade is of a pale green A white jade brush pot carved with the ‘Three Friends of
tone with some cloudy greyish inclusions to one side. Winter’ in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in
4¿ in. (10.5 cm.) high Zhonggui Yuqi Quanji (The Great Treasury of Chinese Jade),
No. 6, Qing, Hebei, 1991, p. 196, fgs. 279-280. Another
$20,000-30,000 slightly larger jade brush pot carved with the same motif in
the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is illustrated by Chang
PROVENANCE Li-tuan, The Refned Taste of the Emperor: Special Exhibition
of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Ch’ing Court, Taipei, 1997,
John Sparks Ltd., London, 1965. pp. 168-69, no. 53. See, also, a related brush pot carved
Private collection, England. with a scholar among pines illustrated by C.C. Teng &
Co., Jade Furnishings from the Scholar’s Studio of 18th Century,
Taipei, 2001, pp. 40-41, no. 16.
清乾隆 青白玉雕歲寒三友筆筒
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