Page 42 - Bonhams NYC Chinese works of Art March 2019

PROPERTY FROM THE HOBART COLLECTION
524 Y
A FINELY CARVED ‘CHICKEN BONE’ JADE ‘MARRIAGE’ BOWL
Qianlong
Well carved with straight sides rising from a flat well, carved in low
relief with a roundel featuring two ripe melons growing from leafy vines,
flanked by a pair of loop handles suspending loose rings, surmounted
by pierced butterflies at the rim, the exterior carved with archaistic
S-scrolls, all supported on four tab feet, the opaque white stone with
dark streaks and russet splashes, wood stand.
7 1/2in (19.2cm) long (2).

$30,000 - 50,000
清乾隆 雞骨玉雕瓜瓞綿綿紋活環耳洗

Provenance:
Virginia Hobart (1876-1958), and thence by descent

Marriage bowls are so-named because of their auspicious imagery,
which combine to create rebuses related to a long and happy marriage
with abundant offspring to carry on the family line, and were thus often
presented as betrothal or wedding gifts.

In the present lot, the vines with melons carved in the interior signify
the family line branching forth and bearing fruit with numerous seeds,
representing future generations. The melons called gua in Chinese,
combine with the two facing butterfly die, handles, to form the rebus
guadie mianmian, which literally mean a profusions of large and small
gourds. In addition, the butterflies also represent joyful encounters and
hence, marital bliss.

For related examples with butterfly handles see a jade bowl with
fish carved on the interior, illustrated by P.F.Schneeburger, The
Baur Collection, Geneva, 1976, no.B11; another with the ‘Three
Abundances’ in the interior illustrated by R. Kleiner, Chinese Jades
from the Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, Hong Kong, 1996,
no.88 and later sold at Christie’s, Hong Kong, 27 November 2007, lot
1503; and one more which was sold in our London rooms, on 16 May
2013, lot 143, with flowers in the interior.

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