Page 34 - Marchant Ninety Jades For 90 Years

十
三

鳳
凰
牡
丹
竹
段
式
筆
筒

白
玉

乾
隆

Anthony Evans 13. Brush holder, bitong, carved in high relief with a standing phoenix on rockwork, holding a flowering peony branch in

its mouth, beside a naturalistic bamboo trunk with relief branches and ridged body, the stone taupe, white and mottled.

4 ⅞ inches, 9.8 cm high.

Qianlong, 1736-1795.

Carved openwork wood stand.
先

生 • From the collection of Anthony Evans, collection no. 216.
舊 • Purchased from Marchant in 1974.
藏 • A related holder, carved with a phoenix bird and prunus, is illustrated by Yang Boda in A Romance with Jade, from the De An

1974 Tang Collection, no. 6, p. 28, where the author also illustrates another with a chilong dragon and prunus, no. 3, p. 25; a further

example with multicoloured stone, and a gnarled prunus trunk enveloped by branches and flowers, is illustrated by Robert

年 Kleiner in Chinese Jades from the Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, no. 118, p. 145; a further brush holder, carved in high

購 relief with monkeys amongst pine on a naturalistic pine trunk, is illustrated by René-Yvon Lefebvre d’Argencé in Chinese Jade in

于 the Avery Brundage Collection, plate LX111, pp. 140/1, where the author notes, ‘Brush holders in the shape of cylindrical tree-
古 trunks or rocky cliffs with plants and branches of withered old trees were much in favour amongst scholars of the 18th and 19th
董 centuries.’
商 • The phoenix, feng, is a symbol of the empress and represents prosperity and great blessings. Together with the peony, it forms the
Marchant
rebus fugui jixiang ‘May there be wealth, rank and good fortune.’ When together with bamboo, zhu, it forms the rebus fengming

zai zhu, ‘The phoenix singing among the bamboo’, which is also a symbol of peace. A phoenix and bamboo brush holder, from

the Avery Brundage collection, is illustrated by Terese Tse Bartholomew in Hidden Meanings in Chinese Art, no. 8.2.5, p. 232.

32