Page 35 - Youngman jade Collection Hong Kong March 3 2019 Sotheby's

This white jade ‘crane’ brush washer is finely worked from the highest quality white jade. Of
elegant oval form, it is skilfully conceived, with the crane’s head extending up to the rim, the
wings flanking the bowl, and the feet intriculately articulated on the underside. The interior
and exterior are both polished to the same level of perfection, and the details are perfect.
By carving the crane’s splendid features in the round, the craftsman has created a visually
striking and tactile vessel for the scholar’s studio. Respect for and taking inspiration from
the natural world are fundamental attitudes in Confucianism, and this vessel would have
provided not only the functional use as a brush washer, but would also have been a source
of reflection and meditation beyond the restrictive walls of officialdom.
The superb workmanship and the delicate articulation of the feathers, legs and beak
grasping a sprig of lingzhi point to the vessel being a product of the early 18th century, and
most likely the Kangxi period. The design motif of a crane with splendid feathery plumage
was popular as a design motif in the Kangxi period, as seen on roundels in porcelain, such
as on a Kangxi famille-verte jardinière from the Jie Rui Tang collection, to be offered in
our New York rooms, 19th March 2019, lot 355. See also examples of cranes used on civil
official’s rank badges, such as one bequested by William Christian Paul to the Metropolitan
Museumum, New York, accession number 30.75.830, and another originally in the
collection of Valery M. Garrett, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30th May 2012, lot 4032.

THE ROBERT YOUNGMAN COLLECTION OF CHINESE JADE 33