Page 81 - 2019 September 10th Sotheby's Important Chinese Art Jades, Met Museum Irving Collection NYC

Like the treasured ‘nine dragon’ washer in the Qianqing Palace, the present washer is similarly
carved with a robust ‘dragon cloud’ design, and bears a poetic inscription attributing it to the
34th year of the Qianlong reign, corresponding to 1769. The exact dating of the Irving washer
and its inscription have been the topic of some discussion, however, it is worth noting that the
poem is recorded in Qing Gaozong yuzhi shiwen quanji / Complete Works of Poetry of Emperor
Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty, Beijing, 1993, vol. 6, juan 81, p. 552. A second jade washer
inscribed with the same poem remains in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing (inv. Gu
89417 Qinggong jiucang).
Additional Qianlong period washers of this type include a small spinach-green jade example
with openwork details in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, published in
Masterworks of Chinese Jade in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1969, pl. 41; a small
white jade washer in the same collection (inv. Guyu 2963), exhibited in Jade: From Emperors
to Art Deco, Musée Guimet, Paris, 2016, cat. no. 124; a large spinach-green washer with Þ ve
dragons sold in our London rooms, 10th November 2010, lot 316; a white and russet washer of
comparable size to the present, but with three dragons and formerly in the collection of Alan
and Simone Hartman, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 27th November 2007, lot 1504; and a white
jade example with nine dragons sold in these rooms, 16th-17th September 2014, lot 280.

CHINESE ART FROM THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART: THE FLORENCE AND HERBERT IRVING GIFT 79