Page 273 - 2020 Sept Important Chinese Art Sotheby's NYC Asia Week

9/2/2020 Important Chinese Art | Sotheby's

fashioned from carefully chosen, highly translucent stones, which enhanced the differing depths of the carved pictorial scene and
were seldom created before the Qianlong period due to the inaccessibility of large flawless pieces of jade. The particular challenge
presented to the carvers of jade table screens was to compose two different designs on each side that would not interfere with but
rather enhance the other when light shone through.
One side of this screen illustrates a scene from the famous rhapsody Hou Chibifu/Latter Ode to the Red Cliff, composed by the
celebrated Northern Song poet, Su Shi (1037-1096), commemorating his trips to the historical battlefield of Red Nose Cliffs during
his political exile. The other side depicts two figures, possibly Shoulao and an attendant, in a mountainous landscape where a
crane flies above the Three Friends of Winter, namely a pine tree, prunus tree and small bamboo grove. The rugged mountains give
a sense of harmony and continuity between the scenes while providing an attractive contrast between the finely detailed soft
features of the figures and various textures of the trees.

A table screen depicting identical scenes, but of slightly larger size and more carved details, from the collections of Sir Bernard
Erkstein and Lady Lenanton was sold twice in our London rooms, 9th December 1948, lot 90, and 29th June 1976, lot 137. See also
a spinach-green jade screen depicting a related scene of figures in a small boat, from the P. Ayers and P.D. Krolik collections, sold
twice in our London rooms, 31st January 1961, lot 175, and 24th February 1970, lot 140.

In its style and technique, this screen exemplifies the imperial style of the 18th century, whereby the Qianlong Emperor advocated
that jade mountains and carved panels should carry the spirit of paintings by famous past masters. It is recorded that a number of
classical paintings from the Emperor’s own collection were ordered to be reproduced in jade, such as the celebrated
painting Travellers in the Mountains, by the eminent Five Dynasties painter Guan Tong (907-960). Compare jade table screens
similarly inspired by paintings and carved with figural mountain scenes, such as a white jade example, in the De An Tang
Collection, included in the exhibition Romance with Jade, Palace Museum, Beijing, 2004, cat. no. 67; three screens, also with
inscribed imperial poems, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the Museum’s exhibition, The Refined Taste of the
Emperor. Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Ch’ing Court, Taipei, 1997, cat. nos 62, 65 and 67; and a pale
celadon example sold in our London rooms, 12th March 1982, lot 29, and again in our Hong Kong rooms, 5th October 2016, lot 62,
from the collection of Roger Keverne. A slightly larger spinach-green jade screen, carved with Laozi and Yin Xi, from the collections
of Robert C. Bruce, Mrs Ian Beattie and Mr and Mrs Djahanguir Riahi, was sold in our London rooms, 21st November 1961, lot 163,
at Christie’s London, 3rd November 1969, lot 157, and most recently in our Paris rooms, 22nd June 2017, lot 6.

https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2020/important-chinese-art?locale=en 273/435