Page 80 - 2019 Nov 28 Sir Quo-Wei Lee Collection Hong Kong

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A WHITE JADE ‘LOTUS’ TEAPOT AND This sophisticated teapot is remarkable for its elegant lotus
COVER leaf design, with floral sprigs and leaves fluidly carved in
QING DYNASTY, 19TH CENTURY relief while curling stems frame one side of the vessel to
form a handle. It belongs to a distinct group of jade ware
well hollowed with deep lobed sides rising from a furled lotus popular from the 18th century, whose complex and precisely
leaf forming the foot and sweeping up to an everted rim, executed floral designs display both the artistic skill and
flanked by a curved foliate spout opposite bundled stems technical know-how of jade carvers of that period, and an
forming the handle, the curved stems extended around the increasing taste for elaborate works of art.
sides issuing lotus blooms and further leaves, the domed A slightly smaller teapot and cover of similar design was sold
cover worked in the form of a veined lotus leaf, surmounted in these rooms, 29th November 1979, lot 419, and again at
by a finial in the form of a recumbent bird clasping further Christie’s Hong Kong, 29th April 1996, lot 706; one of more
leafy floral sprays in its beak, the stone of an even white tone compressed form is illustrated in John Ayers, The Baur
overall h. 22 cm, 8⅝ in.
Collection, Geneva, 1976, pl. B 76; another was sold in our
HK$ 700,000-900,000 New York rooms, 24th October 1980, lot 63; and a further
teapot was sold at Christie’s London, 17th December 1981,
US$ 89,500-115,000 lot 453.
This design on this piece is closely associated with academic
清十九世紀 白玉浮雕把蓮蓋壺
success – the recumbent bird carved on the knob is an egret
lu, homophonic with the Chinese word for road, whilst the
lotus, lian and its seeds ke, are a pun for lianke, a phrase that
can be translated as “passing the civil service examinations,
one after the other”. Together, these symbols form the rebus
yilu lianke, “May you pass your civil service exams all the
way”.

此壺以一把荷葉枝為柄，枝梗伸展，荷葉為底，荷花依
附壺壁，搖曳生姿，優雅隽美。此類裝飾手法，盛行於
十八世紀，以複雜的紋飾爭艷鬪麗，展示工匠們的鬼斧
神工。

以稍小蓋壺，紋飾相近，售於香港蘇富比1979年11月
29日，編號419，再售於香港佳士得1996年4月29日，
編號706。一例器體稍扁，載於約翰．艾爾斯，《The
Baur Collection》，日內瓦，1976年，圖版B76。一
例售於紐約蘇富比1980年10月24日，編號63；另有一
例，售於倫敦佳士得1981年12月17日，編號453。
此壺蓋上雕荷葉鷺鷥，蓋壺呼應，形成了一路蓮科的吉
祥意願。古時科舉時代，士子們為求功名，在器物裝飾
吉祥寓意的紋飾，「一路連科」表示科舉仕途順利，便
是士子們的美好意願。

other view
78 SOTHEBY ’S CHINESE ART