Page 67 - Christie's Fine Jade the LZJ Collection NYC September 21, 2023

J ade cups of this shape are known as zhi, a shape that

appears to have been influenced by lacquer prototypes
of late Warring States period-late Western Han dynasty
(c. 4 -1 century BC) date. See, for example, the zhi raised
st
th
on three mask-surmounted feet, and set with a small loop
handle and a cover, dated Western Han (206 BC-AD 9),
illustrated by Huei-chung Tsao in Des Empereurs à L’art Déco,
Paris, 2016, p. 118, no. 96, where an archaistic jade cup of this
shape dated Ming dynasty, 16 -17 century is also illustrated,
t,h
th
no. 95. A drawing of this type of lacquer cup, with a bronze
cover, handle and banded tripod support, dated mid-Warring
States period (476-221 BC) , excavated from Fuling, Sichuan
province, is illustrated by Suning Sun-Bailey, ‘Gained in
Translation, Chinse Jade: Selected Articles from Orientations
1983-1996, p. 112, fig. 3. Also illustrated, p. 113, fig. 5, is a gilt-
bronze zhi with cover of late Western Han date (206 BC –
AD 23), excavated from Shaoguan, Guangdong province.
For an early jade version of a zhi see the Han dynasty
example of a jade zhi, its shape and decoration similar to that
of the present cup, from the tomb of Liu Hong (d. AD 306)
at Anxiang, Hunan province illustrated by Jessica Rawson,
Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, British Museum,
1995, p. 75, fig. 70, and by Gu Fang (ed.), The Complete
Collection of Jades Unearthed in China, vol. 10, Beijing, 2005,
p. 237. On both the cup from Hunan and the current cup,
the main field of decoration is bordered above and below by
a narrow band, the lower band interrupted by a taotie mask
positioned above each of the three feet. Another jade zhi, but
with a cover, dated Western Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 9),
Fig. 1 Wine vessel (zhi) with dragon and phoenix decoration, Han dynasty
(202 BC-220 AD), in Gu Fang (ed.), The Complete Collection of Jades that is very similar to the present cup and similar in size, is in
Unearthed in China, vol. 10, Beijing, 2005, p. 237. © Science Press, Bejing. the Freer Gallery of Art, F1947.10a-c.
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