Page 88 - 2019 September 10th Sotheby's Important Chinese Art Jades, Met Museum Irving Collection NYC

24 㖶ġġġ 曺 A RARE PAIR OF CELADON AND
䌱
晽 RUSSET JADE INTERLOCKING
漵 RINGS
䲳
⣿ MING DYNASTY
䑘 each ring of circular section incised with a ground of swirling qi
ᶨ and carved in high relief with either four or Þ ve prowling chilong,
⮵ the dragons’ sinuous limbs and bifurcated tails sweeping around
the sides, their backs occasionally dipping beneath the surface
and the head and forelimbs emerging at another point along
the ring, the cadence of the rise and fall of the twisting bodies
imbuing the rings with dynamism and movement, the stone
a translucent pale celadon with a few Þ ne russet veins and
patches, Lucite stand (2)

Overall length 4½ in., 11.5 cm

PROVENANCE Ը๕
Spink & Son, London, 31st October 1984. ŔűŪůŬġħġŔŰů炻ΐ㔎炻IJĺĹĵ⸜IJı㚰ĴIJ㖍
Collection of Florence (1920-2018) and Herbert (1917-2016) ἃ伭ΐ㕗ġĩIJĺijıĮijıIJĹĪġ⍲崓ỗ䈡ġĩIJĺIJĸĮijıIJķĪɀ
Irving, no. 260. 㫸暚ằ⃟㓞啷炻䶐嘇ijķı
LITERATURE ̈و
Roger Keverne, ed., Jade, London, 1995, p. 140, Þ g. 30. œŰŨŦųġŌŦŷŦųůŦġ䶐炻˪ŋŢťŦ˫炻ΐ㔎炻IJĺĺĶ
⸜炻IJĵı枩炻⚾Ĵı
$ 30,000-50,000

Jade ‘handling pieces’ in the form of interlocking rings are
extremely rare, and the present set represents an early example
of the type. The extraordinary skill in the carving, together with
the quality of the stone, and the amount of jade that would have
been reduced and discarded in the production of this set of rings
all indicate the lavish circumstances under which they were
produced. In addition to being sumptuous and novel, the present
set appeals to lofty antiquarian sensibilities by incorporating Han
dynasty-style chilong in high relief crawling across the surface.
The interlocking rings would have thus conveyed the extreme
wealth and reÞ nement of its owner.
Compare a white jade pair of interlocking dragon-form rings,
attributed to the Ming dynasty, sold at Christie’s London,
13th June 1990, lot 485; a Qing dynasty pair of white jade
interlocking rings carved with dragons in low relief, from the
Arthur M. Sackler Collection, sold at Christie’s New York, 18th
March 2009, lot 397; and a Qing dynasty pale celadon jade
set of four interlocking rings carved in low relief with dragons
amidst clouds, in the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum,
Toronto, published in Chen Shen and Gu Fang, Haiwai bowuguan
cang yuqi tuji zhi yi: Jianada Huangjia Andalüe bowuguan
cang Zhongguo gudai yuqi / Chinese Jade Collections from
Museums Outside China, No. 1: Ancient Chinese Jades from the
Royal Ontario Museum, Beijing, 2016, pl. 199. See also a pair
of Qianlong period interlocking rings carved with Liangzhu-
style motifs and inscribed with couplets in the collection of the
Palace Museum, Beijing, and another in the Fitzwilliam Museum,
Cambridge, both published in James C. S. Lin, The Immortal
Stone: Chinese Jades from the Neolithic Period to the Twentieth
Century, London, 2009, Þ g. 24 and cat. no. 86, respectively.

86 SOTHEBY’S