Page 28 - Marchant Ninety Jades For 90 Years

十 10. Ink palette, bi tian, carved as two large open lotus leaves with curled-over edges, flowerhead and branches, with a high relief standing

frog, the underside with relief veins and branches forming the foot, the stone white and pale celadon.

青 7 ¾ inches, 19.7 cm long.
蛙 Qianlong, 1736-1795.
荷 Wood stand.
葉

式 • From a private Monegasque collection, purchased before 1961.
筆 • A similar lotus-leaf ink palette with two dragonflies and another with a bat are both illustrated by Zhao Gui Ling in
舔
Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum, Jade, Vol. 9, Qing Dynasty, Gu Gong Inventory no. Gu 103540 & Xin 46455,

青 nos. 62 & 63, p. 77; another of lotus leaf form is illustrated by Xue Gui Sheng in Zhong Guo Yu Qi Shang Jian, ‘Appreciation
白 and Examination of Chinese Jades’, no. 680, p. 356.

玉 • Others of slightly deeper form and described as brushwashers are well known. One also with a frog is illustrated by Liu Yang &
Edmund Capon in Translucent World, Chinese Jade from the Forbidden City, an exhibition held at the Art Gallery of New South

乾 Wales, Sydney, Australia, 2007, no. 92, pp. 146/7, where the author notes, ‘The great popularity of the lotus in Chinese Art
隆 during later periods derived not only from its association with Buddhism but also with qualities of noble purity and courage: the

lotus flower grows out of mud but is not defiled. Here, a large lotus leaf with an irregular inner curling edge forms a temporary

shelter for a crouching frog. It is surrounded by small leaves and seed buds, with a bunch of stalks forming a handle for the

vessel. The lotus-shaped pot would have stood on a writing desk to hold water for the calligrapher’s brush’; another, also with a

frog and single flowerhead, from Spink & Son, is illustrated by Roger Keverne in, Jade, fig. 82, p. 160.

• A lotus-leaf brushwasher from the Wells bequest in the Victoria & Albert Museum is illustrated by Craig Clunas in his article

Object of the Month, published by Orientations in Chinese Jade, Selected Articles from Orientations 1983-1996, pp. 31-33, where

he recalls a white jade brushwasher of lotus-leaf form from the tomb of Shi Shengzu Quzhou, Zhejiang Province, dated 1274;

yet another large lotus-leaf brushwasher with a high relief crab, from the collection of Lü Xiaguang (1906-1994), was included

by Marchant in their 85th anniversary exhibition, Chinese Jades from Tang to Qing, no. 14, pp. 30/1, where Marchant include

a lotus leaf brushwasher from the Lester family collection, no. 10, pp. 24/5, and note, ‘The quality of the piece, its polish and

finish together with the relief veins on the underside indicate imperial manufacture.’

• During the Qianlong period one of the emperor’s penchants was to have pieces made as direct copies of nature. This piece fulfils

that wish.

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