Page 214 - Sotheby's Asia Week March 2024 Chinee Art

Finely finished to a smooth and highly tactile polish, this riches and honor year after year’. The Qianlong Emperor was The origin of ruyi scepters remains a matter of speculation, jade scepter is the earliest known. For more information
piece is notable for the intricate low relief carving on the particularly fond of them and owned an extensive collection, with the popular belief being that their shape evolved from on the origins of scepters see Yuan Te-hsing’s article in
terminal with a pair of catfish flanking a central peony a number of which are held in the Palace Museum, Beijing, back-scratchers commonly made in bamboo or bone. Masterpieces of Chinese Ju-I Scepters in the National Palace
bloom. Ruyi scepters were rarely made in jade prior to the illustrated in Gugong bowuyuan wenwu cangpin daxi. Yuqi However, their function is likely to have derived from hu Museum, Taipei, 1974, pp 86-90.
18th century given the scarcity of large boulders, and only juan/Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum: tablets that were items of authority and social rank held
became available in increased quantities after the Western Jade, vol. 8: Qing, Beijing, 2011, pls 50-91, including one in the hands of officials in ancient China. This theory is During the Tang and Song dynasties, scepters took on a new
campaigns, which subjugated the Dzungars and secured carved with a pair of catfish emerging from water, pl. 51, and supported by the mention of a ruyi scepter being used as role as ritual implements in Buddhist and Daoist ceremonies.
control over the area of Khotan and Yarkand, in present-day one with an oval head like the present, pl. 79. a tool of command in Fang Xuanling’s (579-648), Jin Shu However, with the decline of Buddhism and a renewed
Xinjiang. Jade boulders from these areas were brought to [the book of the Jin dynasty], the official history of the Jin interest in Confucian ideology from the Song period,
the court, where the finest specimens were selected to be A closely related white jade ruyi scepter, intricately worked Dynasty (265-420). The earliest excavated example of a scepters became closely associated with Daoism with the
carved by artisans working in the Palace Workshop, in the with a similar design of catfish, was sold in our Hong Kong ruyi scepter is recorded in the Song Dynasty (960-1279) head increasingly rendered in the form of the longevity
jade workshops of Suzhou or in those belonging to the Huai rooms, 3rd October 2018, lot 3304. Further related white encyclopedia Shiwu jiyuan [Recordings of the origins of lingzhi fungus. They also became highly ornamented
and Changlu administrations. jade scepters, but with the more common ruyi-shaped things] compiled by Gao Cheng. Gao mentions a scepter and were designed in any shape and material that was
head, include one, carved on the head with bats and a shou made of white jade and carved with dragons, tigers and considered suitable for use as a secular good-luck charm.
Ruyi scepters, by definition, are highly auspicious objects character, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included cicadas found in a copper box excavated from a Warring By the Ming period scepters were often presented as gifts
favored for their shape which represents the propitious in the Museum’s exhibition Masterpieces of Chinese Ju-I States period (475-221 BC) tomb site at Moling in Jiangsu among the official-gentry class, while under the Qing, they
expression ‘as you wish’. The auspiciousness of such Sceptres in the National Palace Museum, 1974, cat. no. 4; province. While archaeologists have yet to discover the became imperial objects that were bestowed by the emperor
scepters was emphasized through carefully selected motifs, and a larger scepter, from the collections of His Highness actual piece, if Gao’s listing is to be believed, the Moling to his worthy officers and loyal subjects as rewards.
as seen on the present which is carved with a pair of catfish Maharaja Sir Padma Shumshere Jung Bahadur Rana and the
and peony, symbolizing ‘May you have an abundance of Princess Rama Malla, sold in our London rooms, 15th May
2013, lot 5.

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