Page 166 - Marchant Ninety Jades For 90 Years

The Hodgson Rhyton

八 88. Imperial dated rhyton, gong, the deep oval cup with a sloping rim and high spout, carved in high relief with a winged mythical animal

十 mask with ruyi-head nose and horns, the stylised wings incised with cross-hatching, all amongst archaic-style scrolls on a scroll ground

八 beneath a stylised relief rope band, the mouth with a wide band of archaic ‘c’ scrolls beneath a relief key-fret band on the rim, the

stone mottled white and grey.
御 6 ⅜ inches, 16.2 cm high; 5 inches, 12.8 cm long; 3 ⅛ inches, 8 cm deep.
題 The interior inscribed with a sixty-two character poem composed by the Qianlong emperor and two seals, bi de, lang run, together
詩
獸 with a four-character mark of Qianlong renzi yuti, corresponding to 1792 and of the period.
面 The stone 18th century or earlier.

紋 • From the collection of Mr M. H. T. Hodgson.
龍 • Included by Basil Gray, Jessica Rawson and John Ayers in the exhibition of Chinese Jade Throughout the Ages, an exhibition
尾
觥 organized by The Art Council of Great Britain and The Oriental Ceramic Society, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1975, no. 447,
p. 134, pl. 14.

灰 • The poem is believed to have been composed by the emperor himself, and translates as: ‘It is well that the head and tail of the
白 dragon be joined in the gong, and that the jewels of the mountains and streams should be treated apart. Of letters the spirit

玉 finds its conception in days of former times, of action the method follows the knowledge of the past. The body was formed in a

manner completely full of art, and the pattern of the taotieh was used to embellish its face. It is satisfying to stand amongst the

十 vessels of Han. What need have I, then, to add to the craftsman’s fine skill.’ Qianlong renzi yuti, ‘Qianlong period renzi year

八 1792’, with two seals, bi de, lang run, ‘compare yourself to jade, bright and lustrous’.
世 • A similar jade rhyton with a poem composed by the Qianlong emperor and date corresponding to 1787, in The Fitzwilliam
紀 Museum, Cambridge, is illustrated by James C. S. Lin in The Immortal Stone, Chinese Jades from the Neolithic to the twentieth
或 century, catalogue number 78, p. 87, where the author notes, ‘From 1774 the emperor started to criticize the new styles
更 (xin yang) and vulgar designs (su yang) produced by contemporary craftsmen. From 1781, he even used the term yu er (‘jade
早 nightmare’) to describe their designs. These terms appear regularly in his poems and on the jade rhyton in the Fitzwilliam

M. H. T. Hodgson collection, which is dated to the spring of 1787. The poem can be found in Qing Gaozong yu zhi shiwen quanji. The inscription

is dated to the second moon of the cyclical year Ding Wei (1787). The imperial workshop diary Neiwufu gezuo chengzuo huoji

qingdang (‘Record of Activity in the Imperial Workshops’) records that this rhyton was given to the imperial Ruyi Guan

workshop to reduce the thickness of the rim and incise it with a kai shu text written by the Qianlong Emperor in May of the

fifty-second year of his reign (1787).’

• Another, with a thirty-seven character poem dated to the Yiji year 1785, in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, is illustrated
先 by René-Yvon Lefebvre d’Argencé in Chinese Jade in the Avery Brundage Collection, plate LIX, pp. 132/3; a further rhyton, with
生
舊 a poem also dated to the Yiji year 1785, from the collection of Commandant Paul-Louis Weiller (1893-1993), was sold by
藏 Christie’s Hong Kong in their auction of Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Part I, 30th November 2011, lot 2963, pp.
92-95, where Christie’s note, ‘The present jade carving is known as a ‘gong’; its name is derived from archaic bronze wine storage

vessels which were modelled with lids. The present example, without its lid and a rounded base, most probably derived its shape

from trade links with Central or Western Asia during the Han dynasty’.

• A further example, dated to the Dingwei year 1787, from the collection of Georges Estoppey (1889-1970), was sold by Sotheby’s

Paris in their auction of Arts d’Asie, 9th June 2011, lot 23, pp. 22-25, where Sotheby’s note, ‘The poem inscribed on this vessel is

entitled Yong Hetian yu longwei gong (Song for a Hetian Jade Dragon Tail Rhyton) and can be found in the Yuzhi shiji (Poetry

Collection by His Majesty).

• It is rare to find rhyton cups of this exceptional quality and organic form. The carver has skilfully used the original contours

of the stone to create a vessel that shows great respect for the treasured material. Shaped after ancient horn-form vessels, jade

rhytons differed from everyday wares. They were held in high esteem not only for the quality of the material but also for the

vessel’s reference to the past.

• It was suggested by Sir Harry Garner, in the letters illustrated in this catalogue, that the rhyton is of an earlier date and the poem

was added on the instruction of the Qianlong emperor in 1792.

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