Page 212 - Sotheby's Asia Week March 2024 Chinee Art

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A WHITE JADE LOOSE-HANDLED GU-FORM 清乾隆 白玉雕雙耳活環花觚
VASE, QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG PERIOD
Height 7⅜ in., 18.7 cm 來源：
香港蘇富比1997年4月29日，編號783
PROVENANCE
香港私人收藏
Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 29 April 1997, lot 783.
Hong Kong Private Collection. 亞洲私人收藏
Asian Private Collection.
The present jade gu-form vase is a remarkable example of
archaistic jade produced for the Qianlong court. The overall
form of this piece is based on archaic bronze gu vessels from
the late Shang (1600-1050 BC) and early Western Zhou
(1050-771 BC) periods. Driven by the Qianlong Emperor’s
fascination with the past, jade craftsmen actively adapted
the archaic bronze shapes to suit the prevailing taste of the
Qing court.
Apart from producing pieces that closely replicated the
original form and design of ancient prototypes, the imperial
craftsmen often adjusted the vessels’ proportions in
innovative ways and borrowed decoration from various
sources, see Gongting zhiya. Qingdai fanggu ji huayi yuqi
tezhan tulu / The Refined Taste of the Emperor. Special
Exhibition of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Ch’ing Court,
Taipei, 1997, pp 36-37. Although the present vase takes
the basic form of a bronze gu, its lozenge-shaped section
was a Qing innovation. The two stylized dragon handles on
the sides are likely inspired by the design of jade pendants
dating back to the Han Dynasty or earlier, see, for example,
a pair of dragon-shaped pendants, attributed to 4th century
BC, illustrated in Jessica Rawson, Chinese Jade from the
Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, pl. 17:9.
Jade vases of diamond-shaped section with undecorated
surfaces are uncommon. Compare a smaller gu-form vase
of closely related proportions, but carved with a dragon on
one side and rocks, lingzhi fungus and auspicious clouds
on the other, preserved in the National Palace Museum and
published online (accession no. 故玉001058N000000000);
one featuring a longer neck, decorated with a slender dragon
in pursuit of a flaming pearl on the sides of the neck, and a
small chilong at the lower section, sold at Christie’s Hong
Kong, 27th November 2007, lot 1546; and a yellow jade
vase of related shape, with two chilong dragons at the neck
contesting a flaming pearl, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong,
29th September 1992, lot 775.
Compare also two related examples with decorated surfaces,
one, carved with taotie masks and banana leaves, flanked by
two handles in the form of elephant heads suspending loose
rings, sold in these rooms, 23rd-24th May 1974, lot 128; the
other, from the collection of Henry J. Heinz II, sold in these
rooms, 18th March 1977, lot 36.
⊖ $ 200,000-300,000

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