Page 71 - Christie's Irving Collection Lacquer Bronse jade and Ink March 2019

IMPERIAL ARCHAISM

AND HARMONY

A M AG N I FI C E N T A N D R A R E JA D E WAS H E R W I T H PA I R E D FI S H
A N D DAT E D Q I A N LO N G N S C R I P T I O N
I

雙 魚 同 漢 式
圓 洗 異 周 金
貯 水 色 如 一
非 銅 味 不侵
堪 欣 漸 還 古

弗 致 日 趨 今
設 展 羲 經 對
應 知 君 子 心

乾隆丙午閏秋御題

This exceptional imperial washer is of fne pale Qianlong bing wu run qiu yu ti (乾隆丙午閏秋御題) ‘Imperially
celadon-green jade and bears a four-character Qianlong inscribed in the autumn of the bingwu cyclical year’ [1786]
mark on its base, encircled by a forty-character imperial
poem. At the end of the poem is a date - autumn in the Two square seals follow the inscription – one has the
bingwu year of the Qianlong reign – equivalent to AD 1786. characters in gold on the pale jade ground and the other, in
The poem reads: reverse, has the characters reserved against a gilt ground.
The seals may be read as: “Son of Heaven at Seventy”
Shuang yu tong Han shi, yuan xi yi Zhou jin, zhu shui se ru yi, (guxi tianzi (古稀天子) and “Still Diligent Every Day” (youri
fei tong wei bu qin, kan xin jian huan gu, fu zhi ri qu jin, she zizi 猶日孜孜). The Qianlong emperor had some 42 seals
zhan Xi Jing dui, ying zhi jun zi xin. reading ‘Son of Heaven at Seventy’, and 24 reading ‘Still
Diligent Every Day’. It is therefore not surprising to see these
This may be translated as: seals reproduced on a favored jade washer. The reign mark,
the poem, the date and the seals on this washer are all
“The pair of fsh are in Han dynasty style,
carved and gilt on the base of the vessel. The text of the
The round washer difers from Zhou-dynasty bronzes.
imperial poem is recorded in Complete Collection of the
Its color is that of the stored water,
Imperial Poems of the Qing Emperor Gaozong (Qianlong)
But not being metal it does not afect the taste.
(Qing Gaozong (Qianlong) yuzhi shiwen quanji), Beijing,
Gradually returning to antiquity,
1993, vol. 8, p. 713 清高宗 (乾隆) 御制詩文全集, 北京, 1993
There is no need to hasten towards modernity.
年, 第八冊, 頁713, where it is entitled: “A Khotan Jade
If one were to open the Book of Changes,
Twin-Fish Washer” (Ti hetian yu shuangyu xi 題和闐玉雙魚
One could understand the heart of a superior man.”
洗). (Fig. 1)

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