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PROPERTY FROM THE JUNKUNC COLLECTION A Song or Ming dynasty attribution seems particularly apt
A PALE GREEN JADE CYLINDRICAL CUP, SONG in light of the prevailing tradition of antiquarianism attested
- MING DYNASTY in these periods. Particularly during the Song dynasty (960-
1279) and the reign of Emperor Huizong (1101-1125), China
Height 3⅜ in., 8.6 cm experienced an explosion of interest in the past; the period
renowned for its fascination with the material remnants of
PROVENANCE
antiquity. Ancient objects were eagerly collected and studied
Fritz Low-Beer & Co., New York, 6th April 1950; by collectors as well as the imperial court; a large body of texts
Collection of Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978). and catalogues devoted to documenting and interpreting
artifacts from the past were produced and disseminated;
LITERATURE
and the quest for antiquity generated a wide range of cultural
Alfred Salmony, Chinese Jade Through the Wei Dynasty, New production during the latter part of the Song dynasty. As
York, 1963, pl. XXXIX, fig. 2. antiquarianism continued to dominate scholarly life well into the
Ming dynasty and beyond, archaic jades and contemporaneous
Of a richly colored stone, shined to a soft polish by years of
treasured ownership, the present cup is a particularly fine example reproductions acquired an almost mythical status, collected by
emperors and literati alike.
of a rare and important group. Adorned with an affronted pair of
dragon and phoenix atop a ground of seed-pearls and geometric Compare a similar cup, originally illustrated alongside the
clouds, the present cup possesses an ineffable sense of archaic present lot in Salmony, op. cit., pl. XXXVIII, and subsequently
power and whispers of an ancient past. included in the exhibition Chinese Jades throughout the Ages,
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1975, cat. no. 322,
This much-coveted group of cylindrical tripod cups with
a single – usually ‘archer’s ring’ shaped – handle are where it was attributed to the 13th-15th century. The same
notoriously difficult to date. Traditionally these cups have cup was more recently included in the exhibition 5,000 Years
of Chinese Jade, San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio,
been considered products of the Han dynasty, particularly by 2012, cat. no. 54, where it was described as Song dynasty.
virtue of their archaic tripod shape – akin to bronze tong or
lian vessels commonly found in Han archaeological contexts. Compare also a tripod cup from the collection of Quincy
Compare a bronze vessel of this type similarly supported Chuang included in the exhibition Chinese Jades from Han
to Ch’ing, New York, 1980, cat. no. 140; and another, in the
on three small kneeling bears in Archaeological Treasures Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, illustrated in Chinese
Excavated in the People’s Republic of China, Asahi, 1973, no.
99. In contrast, in his posthumously published book, Chinese Jades from the Avery Brundage Collection, Tokyo, 1977, pl.
Jade Through the Wei Dynasty, New York, 1963, Alfred XXXVI where it is attributed to the Song to Yuan period.
Salmony illustrates a number of cups of this type, including A slightly squatter cup, similarly carved with phoenix, but
the present lot, and advocates for a slightly later Wei dynasty raised on three animal-head feet, is similarly attributed to
(4th to 6th century) attribution; see p. 235 and pls XXXVIII the Song dynasty, preserved in the National Palace Museum,
and XXXIX-1 and 2. Taipei, see Illustrated Catalogue of Ancient Jade Artifacts
in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1982, pl. 360; and
These theories, though somewhat compelling, now seem
unlikely in light of recent archaeological findings. The another now preserved in the Harvard Art Museums is dated
discovery of several similar jade cups in later tomb sites, simply as ‘Eastern Han or later’ by Max Loehr in Ancient
Chinese Jades from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection in the
though perhaps already antique at the time of burial, strongly
suggests that this group are archaistic (rather than archaic) Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1975, pl. 625.
in nature. Compare one such cup discovered near Beijing in $ 250,000-350,000
1962 in a tomb dated in accordance with 1676, recorded in
Wenwu, 1963. vol. 1, no. 42, fig. 18. The Ming attribution of 宋至明 玉雕龍鳳紋卮
the Beijing cup is further supported by the incised name of Lu
Zigang, known to contemporaneous records as a renowned 來源
Suzhou jade carver active in the second half of the 16th Fritz Low-Beer & Co.，紐約，1950年4月6日
century. Compare another cup of this design and Lu Zigang 史蒂芬•瓊肯三世（1978年逝）收藏
mark from the collection Mr and Mrs Richard C. Bull, sold in
these rooms, 6th December 1983, lot 219. 文獻
Alfred Salmony，《Chinese Jade Through the Wei
Dynasty》，紐約，1963年，圖版XXXIX，圖2

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