Page 70 - Marchant Ninety Jades For 90 Years

三 34. Pendant carved with a dragon and phoenix, with fine detail to the wings and tail feathers, and hairwork on the eyebrows of the dragon,

十 their heads divided by a stylised pearl, the stone pure white.

四 2 ⅛ inches, 5.4 cm long.

Qianlong, 1736-1795.
龍

鳳 • From a Midwestern American collection, acquired in China in the 1920s/1930s and thence by decent.
牌 • A similar pendant is illustrated by Zhang Wei in Jades of the Qianlong, p. 30.

白 • A double-phoenix pendant, with archaic-style dragon heads at the birds’ tails, bearing a Qianlong four-character mark, is
玉 illustrated by Christopher Knapton in the Spink exhibition of Chinese Jade, 1998, no. 50, p. 33; another double phoenix
pendant is illustrated by Zhao Gui Ling in Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum, Jade, Vol. 9, Qing Dynasty, Gu

乾 Gong Inventory no. Gu 92066, no. 237, p. 231; an openwork double-phoenix plaque, also with their heads between a stylised
隆 pearl, was included by Marchant in their 80th anniversary exhibition of Chinese Jades from Han to Qing, no. 31, p. 38.

• The dragon, long, and phoenix, feng, form the rebus longfeng cheng xiang, ‘Presenting happy omens’. The dragon and phoenix are

considered the most auspicious of the mythical animals and were a typical wedding motif in the Qing Palace. The two together

represent good fortune and blessings for the emperor and empress.

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