Page 133 - JJ Lally Ancient Chinese Jades, 1988

130. An Archaic Jade T win Phoenix S tem Cup
Western Han Dynasty (206 BC–AD 9)
of deep cylindrical form, tapering to a narrow base raised on a short stem and splayed circular foot,
very finely carved in varied relief with a pair of mythical crested birds each shown striding forward
with long tail feathers displayed, surrounded by a dense pattern of knobbed and linked ‘C’ scrolls
filling the wide central field between narrow borders of alternating erect and pendant ‘T’-shaped
hooks, and with a collar of stylized petal motifs around the base, the stem and spreading foot left
plain and highly polished, the translucent stone of pale yellowish tone with dark reddish-brown
inclusions shading to black at the foot.

Height 4½ inches (11.3 cm)
The phoenix bird decoration on the present cup is unique but a number of other archaic jade cups of this form decorated
with scroll motifs and stylized petals are recorded, including a stem cup from the Qing Court Collection, now in the Palace
Museum, Beijing, with ring handle at one side, illustrated in Gugong bowuyuan cang wenwu zhenpin quanji (The Complete
Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum), Jadeware (I), Hong Kong, 1995, p. 264, no. 220; another cup with ring handle
in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated by Gu (ed.), Zhongguo chuanshi yuqi quanji (Chinese
Jades in Traditional Collections), Vol. 2, Beijing, 2010, p. 132; a stem cup without handle excavated in 1976 at the site of
a Qin dynasty palace (Efang Gong) near Xi’an, illustrated in Zhongguo yuqi quanji (Compendium of Chinese Jades), Vol. 4,
Shijiazhuang, 1993, p. 6, no. 7, with caption on p. 229; and another stem cup without handle excavated in 1983 from the
Western Han period tomb of the King of Nanyue at Xiangganshan, Guandong province, illustrated by Lin, The Search for
Immortality: Tomb Treasures of Han China, London, 2012, pp. 287-289.
Jade stem cups of this type were objects of luxury made for the emperor and powerful feudal rulers. Lin, op cit., pp. 287
and 289 cites the famous Han dynasty Shiji (Book of History) where it is recorded by Sima Qian that the emperor Wudi
(r. 141–87 B.C.) believed drinking dew and jade powder from a jade cup conferred longevity and therefore ordered a device
for collecting dewdrops to be built at the Jian Zhang Palace.

Гဏcᕐჾ७৷ԑ͗؎c৷ 11.3᩶Ϸ

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