Page 26 - Marchant Ninety Jades For 90 Years

九 9. Brushpot, bitong, carved in relief with the ‘three friends of winter’, suihan sanyou, pine, prunus and bamboo, all above rockwork and

beneath ruyi-form clouds, the trunks and branches with naturalistic gnarled effect, the underside finished as rockwork, the stone pale

嵗 celadon with natural mottling.
寒 4⅛ inches, 10.5 cm high; 3 inches, 7.6 cm diameter.
三 Qianlong, 1736-1795.
友 Wood stand.
圖

筆 • From a private English collection.
筒 • Purchased from John Sparks, London, 1965.

青 • A larger brushpot similarly carved in The National Palace Museum, Taiwan, is illustrated by Chang Li-tuan in, The Refined
白 Taste of the Emperor: Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Ch’ing Court, no. 53, pp. 168/9; another, of similar

玉 subject, is illustrated by Li Jiufang in Zhongguo Yuqi Quanji, ‘Chinese Jade’, Vol. 6, no. 280, p. 196; a brushpot of similar size
and subject was included by Robert J. Poor and Malcolm E. Lein in The Minnesota Museum of Art exhibition, Jade as Sculpture,

乾 1975, no. 58; another similarly carved, with Shoulao and attendant, from Spink and Son, is illustrated by Roger Keverne in
隆 Jade, fig. 20, p. 29; yet another, also with Shoulao and attendant amongst pine, wutong, and rockwork, is illustrated by C.C.

1965 Teng & Co., in their exhibition of Jade Furnishings from the Scholar’s Studio of the 18th Century, 2001, no. 16, pp. 40/1.

• The ‘three friends of winter’, suihan sanyou, are all symbols of longevity; the pine and bamboo are evergreens and together with

年 the prunus live a long time. They are models of fortitude and uprightness in adverse conditions. The Chinese admire this type of
購 resistance to the elements. Depicted here with rockwork and lingzhi-style clouds, they can also form the rebus songling gongshou,
于 ‘may the aged pine honour you with longevity’.

古

董

商

John Spark

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