Page 135 - 2019 OctoberSur Quo Wei Lee Collectim Important Chinese Art Hong Kong

Expertly finished to a smooth and highly tactile polish, this
piece is fashioned from a luminous white jade boulder of
remarkable evenness and texture. Its design, delicately carved
to emphasise the milky white tone of the stone, celebrates
tradition as well as modernity, thus displaying the eclectic
style in vogue at the imperial court in the 18th century.
Among jade marriage bowls made in the Qianlong period,
this piece is particularly special and rare on account of
its exceptional carving and number of handles. Its form
represents a free interpretation of archaic bronze basins,
known as pan, which originated in the Shang dynasty (16th
century-c.1046 BC). Pan were used for ritual ablutions before
and after banquets, and this function may well have been
preserved into the Qing dynasty. Its form, three animal-
mask handles and the taotie masks on the exterior are an
amalgamation of Bronze Age prototypes.
While in China vessels of this type are known as washers, in
the West they are typically referred to as marriage bowls.
The name derives from their auspicious designs that offered
blessings and good wishes upon a marital union. This bowl
is no exception, as the interior is carved with a luxuriant
wannianqing (Chinese evergreen), rohdea japonica, with
broad leaves and clusters of berries, and lingzhi. While the
latter is a well-known symbol of longevity, the former became
a popular subject matter only in the 18th century. Its name
literally means ‘ten thousand years green’, and the character
qing in its name is homophonous with the Qing dynasty. Its
tight cluster of berries embodies the wish for fertility and
male progeny, and when depicted together with the lingzhi, it
expresses the wish wannian ruyi (May your wishes come true
for one thousand years).
Basins of this type were typically fashioned with two handles,
although a small number of vessels with four and six handles
are known. Those with three handles are however very rare,
and no other closely related example appears to have been
published. A washer with two handles similarly fashioned in
the form of animal masks, but carved on the exterior with a
row of sinuous mythological creatures, from the collection
of Mr and Mrs Barney Dagan, was included in the exhibition
Chinese Jade from Southern California Collections, Los
Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 1977, cat. no.
36.
Washers with two handles and carved with this auspicious
motif of Chinese evergreen and lingzhi on the interior are
known; a washer, but with a plain exterior, was sold in these
rooms, 8th April 2010, lot 1869; another with two raised bow-
strings, from the collection of the Manno Art Museum, Osaka,
was sold at Christie’s London, 21st June 2001, lot 112; and
a slightly larger spinach-green jade example was sold twice
in our London rooms, 16th December 1969, lot 104, and 3rd
June 1975, lot 24a.