QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)

Details

AN IMPORTANT SPINACH-GREEN JADE BRUSHPOT, BITONG
Qianlong period (1736-1795)
Of unusually large size, the thick cylindrical sides finely and deeply carved with scenes of figures in a continuous mountain landscape, one scene depicting a group of children accompanied by an elderly man with a staff and a woman holding a child on her back standing outside of the entrance to a compound of clustered buildings, another scene showing a boy riding a water buffalo down a path while another buffalo follows behind, and a third scene of two men encouraging two pack-laden donkeys to cross a bridge spanning a rushing river below two other men carrying sacks over their shoulders towards a group of buildings below the cloud-enshrouded rim, the stone of deep green color with some paler mottling and dark speckling throughout
8¾in. (22.3cm.) diam., cloisonné and gilt-bronze stand raised on five ruyi supports joined by a reticulated lotus-spray apron

Provenance

Collection of the Duca da Padoua, Piedmonte.
Sotheby's, London, 10 October 1960, lot 154, T.B. Kitson Collection.
Sir Isaac and Lady Wolfson.
Sotheby's, London, 8 June 1982, lot 310.

Literature

Maynard, 'Chinese and Indian Jade Carvings in the Collection of Sir Isaac and Lady Wolfson', The Connoisseur, June 1963, fig. 5.
R. Keverne, Jade, New York, 1991, p. 184, fig. 139.

Further details

See detail on preceding page

Lot Essay

An equally well-carved green jade brushpot of similar date and just slightly smaller size (20.5cm. diam.) is illustrated in The Baur Collection, Geneva, Chinese Jades and other Hardstones, Geneva, 1976, no. B 98.
In a discussion of the large green jade brushpot dated to the 18th century in the collection of Sir Joseph Hotung, Chinese Jade: From the Neolithic to the Qing, British Museum, London, 1995, no. 29.18, the author, Jessica Rawson, notes that jade workshops sometimes used conventional painting and printing themes as the basis for their designs. The carver treated the surface of the jade almost like a sheet of paper and used his "techniques to produce the effects of a painting."

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