The following property (lots 75-86) is sold by descendants
of William Boyce Thompson
William Boyce Thompson was a mining magnate and founder of the Hewmont Mining Company. According to a biography of his life by Herman Hagedorn, The Magnate, William Boyce Thompson and His Time [1869-1930], Reynal & Hitchcock, New York, 1935, Thompson "found his satisfaction in his gardens and his mineral collection". (This latter collection eventually was a gift to the Natural History Museum, New York.) "The approach to the mineral room was such as Kubla Khan might have ordered for a similar treasure chamber. Under a ceiling elaborately decorated with motives (sic) taken from the imperial palace at Pekin, the walls of a long antechamber were lined with flowering shrubs and hanging grapes of Chinese jade."
The mansion in which the collection of mineral trees was housed now houses the library of Seton-Iona College in Yonkers, New York
A GROUP OF JADE AND HARDSTONE POTTED PLANTS AND LANDSCAPES
FROM A NEW YORK COLLECTION
Jade and hardstone 'potted plants' and 'miniature gardens' were used as decoration throughout the palaces of the Forbidden City, especially on festival days. See Wan Yi, et al., Daily Life in the Forbidden City, 1988, where 'potted plants' or 'garden landscapes' of all kinds are illustrated, one singly, the others within the context of the richly appointed palaces and halls: pls. 201, 214, 215, 219, 222 and 376. Other 'potted landscapes' were included in the exhibition, Tributes from Guangdong to the Qing Court, Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1987, Catalogue nos. 58, 59, 60 and 61, and are discussed pp. 55 and 56.
See, also, a marble jardiniere filled with flowering narcissus bulbs, Michel Beurdeley, The Chinese Collector throughout the Ages, 1966, and a pair of nandina plants in jade-inset gilt-metal jardinieres sold in these rooms May 30, 1991, lot 182
A PAIR OF JADE AND SEMI-PRECIOUS STONE 'PEONY' FLOWER GROUPS
Details
A PAIR OF JADE AND SEMI-PRECIOUS STONE 'PEONY' FLOWER GROUPS
INCISED QIANLONG FOUR-CHARACTER SEAL MARK, 19TH CENTURY
Each plant formed by a silk thread-wrapped wire stem supporting buds and blossoms carved from white and green jade, as well as amethyst and pink tourmaline or rose quartz, each petal cut separately and joined by wire thread to enameled copper buds with finely detailed leaves, with butterflies formed from jade, jadeite, coral, wire thread and pearls dispersed amidst the branches, all surrounded by semi-transparent spinach jade leaves, mostly tri-lobed, all rising from a dark spinach- green jade octagonal jardiniere carved with lotus panels dividing loose-ring and flowerhead handles--approx. 20½in. (51.8cm.) high overall (2)
INCISED QIANLONG FOUR-CHARACTER SEAL MARK, 19TH CENTURY
Each plant formed by a silk thread-wrapped wire stem supporting buds and blossoms carved from white and green jade, as well as amethyst and pink tourmaline or rose quartz, each petal cut separately and joined by wire thread to enameled copper buds with finely detailed leaves, with butterflies formed from jade, jadeite, coral, wire thread and pearls dispersed amidst the branches, all surrounded by semi-transparent spinach jade leaves, mostly tri-lobed, all rising from a dark spinach- green jade octagonal jardiniere carved with lotus panels dividing loose-ring and flowerhead handles--approx. 20½in. (51.8cm.) high overall (2)