Page 23 - 2019 September 10th Sotheby's Important Chinese Art Jades, Met Museum Irving Collection NYC

2 A RARE WHITE JADE SPOON

JIAQING MARK AND PERIOD
㶭 䘥 炈 of elegant S-form, the scoop well-hollowed and with a ß at base, Exceptionally rare, the present jade spoon belongs to a group
▱ 䌱 ▱ the tip of the curved handle forming a dragon head grasping a of imperial undecorated white jade eating and drinking vessels
ㄞġġġ 晽 ㄞ pearl in the mouth, horns ß attened against the neck, a long tuft made for the Jiaqing court that all share a similar four-character
䤍 ⸜ of fur streaming behind, the underside of the handle incised with mark.
漵 墥 a vertical four-character mark, the stone a pale celadon-white Examples of objects belonging to this group include a pair of
☁ 炉 with icy ß ecks, wood stand (2) saucer dishes illustrated in The Woolf Collection of Chinese Jade,
䎈 㫦 London, 2013, pl. 5, a pair of bowls from the collection of Sir
⊢
Length 6¾ in., 17.2 cm Joseph Hotung, published in Jessica Rawson, Chinese Jade from
the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, pl. 29:13, a white jade
cup sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 8th October 2010, lot 2863, a
PROVENANCE dish sold in the same rooms, 8th April 2013, lot 3112, and a cup
European Private Collection, acquired circa 1900. and stand sold at Christie’s New York, 19th September 2006, lot
25. Rawson notes that sumptuary laws and passages in novels
Roger Keverne Ltd., London, 7th January 1999.
Collection of Florence (1920-2018) and Herbert (1917-2016) discuss the use of jade cups and bowls for eating and drinking,
Irving, no. 352. and that undecorated jade vessels probably represented the
highest quality of such utensils, op. cit., p. 400.
$ 20,000-30,000
Compare a Qing dynasty unmarked white jade spoon with a very
similar shape and handle, but carved with a ‘double happiness’
Ը๕ character to the scoop, illustrated in Compendium of Collections
in the Palace Museum: Jade, Beijing, 2010, pl. 119. Another
㫸㳚䥩Ṣ㓞啷炻⼿㕤䲬IJĺıı⸜
carved with a dragon in proÞ le ‘biting’ onto the short straight
œŰŨŦųġŌŦŷŦųůŦġōŵťį炻ΐ㔎炻IJĺĺĺ⸜IJ㚰ĸ㖍 handle is published in ibid., pl. 118, and a further example with
ἃ伭ΐ㕗ġĩIJĺijıĮijıIJĹĪġ⍲崓ỗ䈡ġĩIJĺIJĸĮijıIJķĪɀ a ß atter and wider scoop, with the handle terminating in a ruyi
㫸暚ằ⃟㓞啷炻䶐嘇ĴĶij head, is shown in ibid., pl. 121.
A white jade teapot and cover attributed to the Qianlong/Jiaqing
period, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30th November 2011, lot
3028, has a handle carved as a dragon head latched onto the
vessel, stylistically similar to the handle of this spoon in their
facial features and expressions. Compare also a Qianlong fanggu
mark and period white jade water vessel and spoon sold in our
London rooms, 20th June 2001, lot 110, and again in our Hong
Kong rooms, 8th October 2009, lot 1804: aside from a slight
variation in the tip of the handles, the spoon has almost an
identical proÞ le to the present spoon.
This spoon, along with the aforementioned group of white jade
utensils, may also be associated with the famous Jiaqing mark
and period ram-head ewer in the Woolf Collection, op. cit., pl.
59, and its pair in the Palace Museum, Beijing, published in
Yang Boda, Zhongguo Meishu Quanji. Gongyi meishu bian. Yuqi
[Complete series on Chinese Art. Arts and Crafts Section: Jade],
vol. 9, Beijing, 1991, pl. 331.

CHINESE ART FROM THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART: THE FLORENCE AND HERBERT IRVING GIFT 21