Page 30 - Reginald and Lena Palmer Collection EXHIBITION, Bonhams London Oct 25 to November 2 2021

The carving around this brushpot is directly copying the Yuzhi gengzhi vessel, a very large jade boulder would have been used of remarkable
tu (御製耕織圖 Imperially Commissioned Illustrations of Agriculture and quality, with the carving process and hollowing of the brushpot creating
Sericulture). See a set of woodblock prints with 46 leaves with ink on significant wastage of material, underscoring the lavish expenditure in
paper, showing the processes involved in rice growing and sericulture, the process of making this exceptional scholarly vessel.
dated 1696, in the British Museum, London, illustrated by C.von
Spee, The Printed Image in China: From the 8th to the 21st Centuries, Farming and sericulture were highly valued by all Emperors across
London, 2010, p.113, no.46. A woodblock print showing the same the ages in what was essentially a physiocratic society. Each year
scene of stacking sheaves in a rick is also illustrated by J.Rawson, at the beginning of Spring, the Emperor himself would ceremonially
Chinese Jade: From the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, p.409, plough a patch of earth and the Empress would ceremonially weave
and the related spinach-green jade brushpot with the same scene is silk, signifying the importance rulers attached to agriculture and the
illustrated on p.408. production of silk. In the Southern Song dynasty, Lou Shu began to
make twenty-one images entitled ‘Images of Farming and Weaving’,
The brushpot is extraordinary in the concept of the master carver showing the process in detail. Politically, they reflected an ideal under
turning it into a three-dimensional multi-layered canvas, with the image righteous government and so these images have always been highly
continuing and revealing itself through the physical turning of the vessel valued by the Emperors.
by the beholder. It is also noteworthy that to produce such a magnificent

28 | BONHAMS