Page 39 - Bonhams Hong Kong Fine Chinese Works of Art December 2 2021

PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN 紳士收藏
213
A PALE GREEN JADE ‘LOTUS AND FROG’ WASHER The present lot would have graced the desk of an educated literatus,
18th/19th century reminding the owner of the lotus’s famed ability to remain ‘unstained
Finely carved as a vessel in the shape of a large lotus leaf incised with by the muddy surrounding’. Scholar-officials who refused to
dainty veins elegantly spreading up to the curved foliate rim, the vessel compromise their integrity liked to compare themselves with the purity
borne on leafy winding stems bearing a lotus bloom, a smaller leaf of the lotus, a symbolism further imbued with its Buddhist religious
curling alongside the rim and a frog sitting curiously on the side, the significance and association. The swallow, carved on one side of
softly polished stone of even pale green tone, stand. the washer, symbolises the heralding of good fortune to come and a
15cm (5 7/8in) wide. (2). prosperous change for the better.

HKD100,000 - 150,000 Compare a pale green jade lotus leaf washer, of similar form and
US$13,000 - 19,000 inspiration, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Compendium
of Collections in the Palace Museum: Jade 10: Qing Dynasty, Beijing,
十八/十九世紀 青白玉「荷上鳴蛙」洗 2011, no.195. See also a related pale green jade lotus washer, 18th
century, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, illustrated by
Provenance: M.Wilson, Chinese Jades, London, 2004, pl.56;
An English private collection
Bonhams London, 6 November 2014, lot 310 參看北京故宮博物院藏一件清青玉荷葉水族洗，其造型及設計和本
A distinguished Asian private collection 拍品類似，見《故宮博物院藏品大系：玉器編10》，北京，2011年，編號
195。倫敦維多利亞阿爾伯博物館藏一件十八世紀青玉荷葉洗可資比
來源: 較，見M.Wilson，《Chinese Jades》，倫敦，2004年，圖版56
英國私人舊藏
倫敦邦瀚斯，2014年11月6日，拍品編號310
亞洲顯赫私人收藏