Page 46 - 2018 Hong Kong Important Chieese Art

Modelled with eight lobes to recall a blooming flower, the
present agate bowl is exceptional for its beautiful colouration
and translucent quality. Agate, with rippling layers of colours
ranging from bright honey to coffee brown, is one of several
hard stones that were valued as much as jade and first used in
China no later than the Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220).
The current bowl, carved from a stone of exceptional quality,
ranks among the finest examples recorded in museum and
private collections. A slightly smaller example (13.5 cm), also
of an eight-lobed mallow form, but incised on the base with
a four-character Yongzheng mark, is in the collection of the
National Palace Museum, Taipei, and illustrated in Harmony
and Integrity. The Yongzheng Emperor and His Times, National
Palace Museum, Taipei, 2009, cat. no. II-63, together with a
Yongzheng-marked six-lobed example, cat. no. II-64, and six
other bowls of various forms, cat. nos II-61, 62, 65-68.
The inspiration of this elegant form with subtle indentations
can be traced back to early metalwork. See a parcel-gilt silver
bowl with five petal lobes, dated to the Tang dynasty, 8th
to 9th century, included in the exhibition Chinese Gold and
Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, D.C., 1954-1955, cat. no. 116, and sold in our
London rooms, 14th May 2008, lot 74.

44 SOTHEBY’S 蘇富比