Page 102 - Sotheby's Important Jades, Amber & Hardstones Oct. 3, 2018

3349

A YELLOW JADE ARCHAISTIC 清十九世紀 黃玉瑞獸紋出戟方鼎
RECTANGULAR INCENSE BURNER AND
COVER, FANG DING
QING DYNASTY, 19TH CENTURY
the rectangular body supported by four ox heads projecting
cylindrical legs encircled by two raised bands, the sides of
the vessel decorated with small birds in low relief, a pair of
inverted U-shaped handles resting on a square-cut rim, finely
carved taotie masks flanked on the sides of the tapered cover,
surmounted by two lions widening their jaws in a ferocious
roar, both facing each other’s back in a rounded stance, the
translucent stone of varying tones of yellowish celadon with
patches of russet, wood stand
20.4 cm, 8 in.

HK$ 800,000-1,000,000
US$ 102,000-128,000

Although a number of jade fang ding was produced from the
Qianlong period, it is extremely rare to find the archaistic bird
design as seen on the present incense burner, and no other
closely related example appears to have been published. A
celadon jade fang ding, but with ringed side handles, modelled
with a frieze of similarly styled animals above a taotie mask, in
the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Gugong bowuyuan
wenwu cangpin daxi. Yuqi juan/Compendium of Collections in
the Palace Museum. Jade, vol. 10, Qing Dynasty, Beijing, 2011,
pl. 65. The legs which extend from ox heads on the present
piece is also very rare as they are more commonly found
extending from taotie masks; for example see a white jade
fang ding, from the collection of the Rt. Hon. Sir Peter Blaker,
KCMG., MP., sold in these rooms, 19th November 1985, lot
81; and a jadeite version, from the Ernest and Helen Dane
collection, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30th May 2012, lot
4275. For the bronze prototype to this vessel, see a fang ding,
attributed to the Western Zhou period, similarly cast with
masked head legs and raised bosses surrounding a central
rectangular plain, all below a dragon band, in the Ashmolean
Museum, Oxford, accession no. EA1956.834.
Vessels of this form were usually decorated with taotie designs
on the body; see a white jade fang ding in the collection of
the Asian Museum of San Francisco, illustrated in René-Yvon
Lefebvre d’Argencé, Chinese Jades in the Avery Brundage
Collection, Tokyo, 1977, pl. LIII; one, in the National Palace
Museum, Taipei, included in the Museum’s exhibition Great
National Treasures of China, Taipei, 1996, cat. no. 45; and
another in the De An Tang Collection, exhibited in A Romance
With Jade, Palace Museum, Beijing, 2004, cat. no. 124, and
sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 10th April 2006, lot 1757.

100 SOTHEBY’S 蘇富比