Page 378 - Christies Fine Chinese Works of Art March 2016 New York

PROPERTY FROM AN AMERICAN PRIVATE COLLECTION

1675

A RARE THREE-PIECE GREEN JADE INCENSE GARNITURE
18TH CENTURY

The garniture is comprised of a covered censer, a tool vase and an incense box and cover, all
with lobed corners. The censer is carved with a band of intertwined archaistic serpents above
a band of shou characters fanked by archaistic motifs, and has a pair of animal-mask and loose
ring handles on the narrow sides. The cover is carved in high relief at each corner with a
coiled chilong and is surmounted by a coiled, openwork dragon fnial. The tool vase is carved
in low relief with intertwined archaistic dragons, and the slightly domed cover of the box is
carved with a formal foral motif within a border of conjoined C-scrolls. The semi-translucent
stone is of mottled green color and rich tone.
The censer 5æ in. (14.7 cm.) wide, wood stands

$80,000-120,000

PROVENANCE

George H. Taber (1859-1940) Collection, and thence by descent within the family.

George Hathaway Taber Jr. (1859-1940) was a prolifc collector of Chinese ceramics and jades with
a discerning eye. He was the son of Capt. George H. Taber (1808-1901), who rose from a humble
background to become a prominent member of the community and held a number of important oficial
positions including serving as President of Fairhaven Bank. The younger Taber made his mark as an
oil executive and ultimately as a board member with the Gulf Oil Company. A self-taught engineer, he
was instrumental in developing important advances in the oil-refning technique. Believed to have been
infuenced by a relative who had brought back tales and beautiful objects from his travels in China,
George Hathaway Taber, Jr. built up an extraordinary collection, which was loaned or gifted to a number
of museums, including the Philbrook Museum, to form the core of the Chinese collection. An extremely
rare doucai tianqiuping gifted by the Tabers remains the outstanding work from the Museum’s Chinese
collection. Upon his death in 1940, the collection was split up between his descendants, and part of it
was sold at the Park Bernet Galleries, 7-8 March 1946.

Compare with incense garnitures produced in a variety of materials in the National Palace Museum,
Taipei, included in the Special Exhibition of Incense Burners and Perfumers Throughout the Dynasties,
1994, and illustrated in the catalogue, nos. 82 and 89 (porcelain imitating early bronzes), nos. 84 and
85 (white jade), no. 86 (champlevé enamel), no. 87 (molded celadon porcelain), and no. 88 (enamel on
metalwork).

The ritual of incense burning served not only a spiritual element, but it facilitated other more practical
purposes, such as the fumigation of clothes. Each of these vessels was used for a specifc purpose:
the box and cover for storage of incense, either in strip, coil or pellet form, whilst the tool vase
accommodated implements such as chopsticks and a spatula to rake or smooth the bed of ashes placed
in the censer.

Compare also with two jade garnitures sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 October 2000, lot 657, celadon
jade; and lot 658, of white jade.

清十八世紀 碧玉爐瓶盒三式

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