Page 180 - Bonhams Chinese Art London May 2013
P. 180
Invoice The jade ‘marriage’ bowl, Lot 143, in situ in the family’s residence
The Property of a Lady 女士藏品 The very fine jade bowl with its superbly carved butterfly handles
belongs to the category of ‘marriage’ bowls alternatively carved
143 with butterfly, bat or dragon handles, popular in the Qing Dynasty
A magnificent very pale green jade ‘marriage’ bowl Imperial court. The two butterfly handles suspending loose rings in
Qianlong mirror image, symbolise ‘Joyful encounter’, 喜相逢 Xi xiangfeng, and
Superbly carved from a single stone of extremely pale whiteish-green by extension marital happiness. For a related example of the use of
jade, the deep bowl raised on four squared curved feet, with two butterfly handles see a white jade censer and cover with four butterfly
handles each formed as a single delicately-detailed butterfly with two handles suspending loose rings, illustrated in The Complete Collection of
looping antennae curving over the spreading wings reaching around Treasures of the Palace Museum: Jadeware (II), Beijing, 2008, pl.27.
the sides of the bowl, each suspending a single loose ring, the interior
intricately decorated in low relief with blossoming flowers and a smaller The very fine even quality of the jade stone is evident in the craftsman’s
bud all set within a skilful and complex design of overlapping and decision to intricately carve only the interior and handles, whilst
intertwining foliage, the plain exterior softly polished to exhibit the abstaining from carving the exterior, thus allowing the appreciation of
quality of the stone, carved wood stand. the even stone.
21.5cm (8½in) wide (2).
£80,000 - 120,000 Compare a larger white jade ‘marriage’ bowl, Qianlong, with butterfly
HK$940,000 - 1,400,000 CNY750,000 - 1,100,000 handles but uncarved in the interior; and another slightly larger white
jade ‘marriage’ bowl, Qianlong, with butterfly handles but carved at the
清乾隆 青玉雕花卉紋雙蝶耳活環洗 interior with twin fish, respectively sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1 June
2011, lots 3565 and 3641. For another smaller example with butterfly
Provenance: acquired from John Sparks Ltd., London, on 29 November handles and carved around the sides and the interior, from the collection
1954 of Simon and Alan Hartman, New York, see Christie’s Hong Kong, 27
A European private collection and thence by descent November 2007, lot 1503.
來源：1954年11月29日購於倫敦古董商John Sparks
歐洲私人收藏，並由家族繼承下去
176 | Bonhams
