Page 102 - 2019 September 10th Sotheby's Important Chinese Art Jades, Met Museum Irving Collection NYC

31 㖶 䀘 A GRAY AND CELADON JADE
⋩ 曺
ℕ 䌱 EWER AND COVER
ᶾ 晽 MING DYNASTY, 16TH CENTURY
䲨ġġġ 暚
漵 the compressed pear-shaped body supported on a conforming
䲳 foot and sweeping up to a waisted neck and subtly galleried rim,
䋭 set to one side with a gently curving upright spout connecting to
憽 the neck by a dragon-form strut, a long S-curved handle at the
➟ opposite side, the pinnacle of the handle pierced for attaching
⢢ a chain, each side of the body carved in high relief with a raised
teardrop-shaped panel enclosing a dragon and its young
frolicking amidst swirling clouds, the motif repeated in low relief
in a continuous pattern on the body, spout, and handle, a band of
keyfret at the rim, prunus blossoms ß oating on waves around the
foot, the domed cover carved in low relief with chilong prowling
above a keyfret band and surmounted by an openwork Buddhist
lion-form Þ nial, the stone a pale celadon color with a large swath
of translucent gray at one side and scattered opaque beige
inclusions (2)

Height 6¾ in., 17.2 cm

PROVENANCE Ը๕
Sotheby’s London, 15th December 1981, lot 45. ΐ㔎喯⭴㭼IJĺĹIJ⸜IJij㚰IJĶ㖍炻䶐嘇ĵĶ
Collection of Florence (1920-2018) and Herbert (1917-2016) ἃ伭ΐ㕗ġĩIJĺijıĮijıIJĹĪġ⍲崓ỗ䈡ġĩIJĺIJĸĮijıIJķĪɀ
Irving, no. 241. 㫸暚ằ⃟㓞啷炻䶐嘇ijĵIJ
$ 50,000-70,000

The form of this ewer derives from Islamic metalwork. Popular
in the late Ming dynasty, Islamic-style ewers were produced
in a variety of materials including porcelain, jade, and metal.
See for example a white and russet jade example excavated
from the Dingling Mausoleum, Beijing, and carved with a peach,
wanzi, and shou character on the raised panels, illustrated in Gu
Fang, Zhongguo chutu yuqi quanji / The Complete Collection of
Jades Unearthed in China, vol. 1, Beijing, 2005, pl. 65. Compare
also a slightly earlier spinach-green jade example with a ß oral
spray carved into the lobed panel, with the remaining surface
undecorated, illustrated in James C. Y. Watt, Chinese Jades in
the Collection of the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, 1989, pl. 96.
See also a mid to late Ming celadon jade example illustrated in
The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum:
Jadeware (II), Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 206, carved allover with the
‘Eight Immortals’ and with elaborate Þ ttings; a plain white jade
ewer with a dragon-form handle from the collection of Alan and
Simone Hartman, attributed to the 16th/17th century, sold at
Christie’s Hong Kong, 27th November 2007, lot 1538; and a
16th-17th century celadon jade ewer carved with blossoming
prunus trees in the collection of the National Palace Museum,
Taipei, exhibited in Jade: From Emperors to Art Deco, Musée
Guimet, Paris, 2016, cat. no. 110.
For contemporaneous examples in porcelain, compare the
aubergine-glazed ewer with pierced dragon panels in the Topkapi
Saray Museum, Istanbul, illustrated in Soame Jenyns, Ming
Pottery and Porcelain, London, 1953, pl. 50A. See also a group of
mid-16th century kinrande-decorated ewers illustrated in John
Ayers, The Baur Collection: Ceramics, vol. II, Geneva, 1969, pls.
A177-179.

100 SOTHEBY’S