Page 74 - Marchant Ninety Jades For 90 Years

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六 36. Openwork pendant carved with an oval frame enclosing two quails amongst grains of millet, all between two chilong dragons, each

嵗 with a bifid tail, their bodies carved with scrolls, the reverse with similar oval frame and a four-character relief-mark sui sui shuang an,
嵗 ‘May you have peace year after year’, the edge with a recessed relief two-character mark Zi Gang, the stone pure white.
平 2 ⅛ inches, 5.5 cm long.
安 Qianlong, 1736-1795.

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• From the private collection of Mr Y. C. Chen.

白 Yu Chieh Chen was born in Yangzhou in 1922 and at the age of 15 became an apprentice to a well-established antique dealer,

玉 Zhu Heding. Another of Master Zhu’s pupils was Qiu Yanzhi, better known as Edward T. Chow. Although their apprenticeships

never overlapped, they became close friends, both later living in Hong Kong, where Y. C. Chen settled in the early 1950s and
乾 became great friends with the famous collectors of the day, J. M. Hu, T. Y. Chao and S. C. Ko. Mr Chen set up a gallery on
隆 Hankow Road, which finally closed in the late 1980s. Mr Chen was well known and highly respected. He took great care in

viewing items before making a purchase to ensure the pieces he dealt in and collected personally were in perfect condition.
「 • Two pendants of similar subject and inscription are illustrated by Xue Gui Sheng in Zhong Guo Yu Qi Shang Jian, ‘Appreciation
歲
歲 and Examination of Chinese Jades’, nos. 279 & 280, pp. 154/5; two other pendants of similar subject and inscription
雙 are illustrated by Yu Yan Jiao in Yuqi Jian Shang Yu Touzi, ‘Jade Appreciation and
安 Investment’, pp. 258/9.
」 • A pendant of this form is illustrated by Maggie Bickford in The Crawford Bequest,

「 Chinese Objects in the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, no. 67, p. 104.
子 • The workshop associated with Lu Zigang was established in Suzhou during the late Ming
岡 Dynasty. The carvings produced by Zigang during this period and into the Qing dynasty
」 are regarded as of the highest quality. Many similar pendants bear his name.

款 • Quail, anchun, and ears of grain, sui, form the rebus, suisui ping’an, ‘May you have peace

Y. C. Chen year after year.’

• An imperial porcelain copper-red stem cup, gao zu bei, from the collection of Mr Y. C.

Chen, was included by Marchant in their exhibition of Chinese Ceramics Tang to Qing,

先 May 2014, no. 48, pp. 96/7.

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