Page 62 - Christie's London May 14, 2019 Important Chinese Jades

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A GREENISH-WHITE JADE 'SCHOLAR' PENDANT PLAQUE
17TH-18TH CENTURY
The small rectangular plaque is decorated with a panel enclosing two fgures
in a mountainous landscape, and surmounted by a pair of confronting kui
dragons. The reverse is carved with a poetic inscription and a seal reading 'wen
wan' which may be translated as 'scholarly plaything'.
2 in. (5 cm.) long
£10,000-20,000 US$14,000-26,000
€12,000-23,000
PROVENANCE:
The Dizang Studio Collection, Taipei, acquired between 1970 and 1990.
The inscription contains two lines extracted from the poem Zeng Fan
Hwa composed by Lu Kai (?- c.504). The story described by the poem
corresponds with the carved decoration to the front of the plaque, illustrating
(reverse) the scene in which the protagonist is picking prunus fowers when he
encounters a messenger, so he asks the messenger to send a prunus branch
to his friend Fan Ye (AD 398-445), the author of the Hou Hanshu, as a gift
from Jiangnan. The inscription may be translated as: 'There's not much to
ofer in Jiangnan, but I can send you this branch of prunus which announces
the arrival of spring'.

明末清初 青白玉高士圖詩文牌

詩文: 「江南無所有, 聊贈一枝春」

來源: 地藏山房珍藏，台北，於1970至1990年間入藏

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