JADE CARVINGS FROM THE COLLECTION OF HEBER REGINALD BISHOP (LOTS 1028-1035) One of the great American industrialists and philanthropists of the late 19th century, Heber Reginald Bishop (1840-1902), amassed one of the largest and most distinguished collections of jade objects in the West. With a focus on Chinese jades, his collection also included examples from all Asian countries, as well as North and South America and Europe, illustrating the artistic, scientific and geographic merits of the material on a global scale. Jades were not the limit of his collecting interests. He amassed Japanese and Chinese lacquers, bronzes, swords, textiles and robes, and in 1879 he donated a large collection of Alaskan antiquities to the American Museum of Natural History. In 1902, before his death, Bishop announced his intended gift of the bulk of his jade collection to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, forming what would become the cornerstone of the museum's collection. He stipulated that the jades be exhibited in a reproduction of the Louis XV ballroom in his New York home, the funding for which he amply provided in his will. Bishop also endowed the publication of a lavish, two-volume work on his jade collection, including studies by the most prominent scholars of the day, which was published posthumously in a limited edition of 100. These large volumes, measuring some 24 x 18 inches, were presented to a select group of institutions and royalty in the U.S. and abroad, after which the plates were destroyed. One of these sets (number 10 of 100), The Bishop Collection, Investigations and Studies in Jade, Privately Printed, 1906, was sold in these rooms, 15-16 September 2011, lot 1412. Others were also sold in these rooms; number 9 of 100, sold on 5 September 2009, lot 157, and number 53 of 100, sold 19 September 2007, lot 114. Number 100 was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 27 November 2007, lot 1887. The present outstanding group of jades have all descended in the Bishop family and reflect the exemplary lapidary skills of the Qing-dynasty carvers. Particularly noteworthy is the exceptional spinach-green jade brush pot (lot 1035), carved with a scene of the six scholars of Zhuxi that elegantly unfolds around the brush pot like a scroll painting. A similar jade brush pot, with the same scene, is in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing. The well-carved mountain, lot 1030, depicts a more bucolic and romantic scene of a lone farmer resting on his hoe, and an elephant, with the sun gently enveloped by clouds above. The white jade 'champion vase', lot 1032, is a refined example of its type, and can also be compared with an example in the Palace Museum. PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE EAST COAST COLLECTION

A MUGHAL SMALL WHITE JADE LEAF-SHAPED BOX AND COVER

18TH/19TH CENTURY

Details

A MUGHAL SMALL WHITE JADE LEAF-SHAPED BOX AND COVER
18TH/19TH CENTURY
The convex cover is finely carved in low relief with a central flower borne on a leafy stem that, along with further graceful arching flowering stems, issues from an outer leaf border. There are further upright flowering plants on the sides of the box that rise from the flat base. The white stone is translucent.
3 in. (7.5 cm. ) long

Provenance

Heber Reginald Bishop (1840 - 1902), and thence by descent within the family.

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Michael Bass

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Lot Essay

It is very probable that this box is Mughal, as the type of stone used, the style of carving, the small size, and the recess in the center of the cover for a glass or ruby inlay, is similar to several covered boxes in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, which are called Mughal, and illustrated in Exquisite Beauty - Islamic Jades, Taipei, 2007, pp. 105-7, pls. 117, 120, and 121. Pl. 120, a circular box, is inscribed on the base with a four-character Qianlong yuyong mark, 'for the use of the Qianlong Emperor,' an example of the emperor's interest in Mughal jades. Also illustrated, p. 159, pl. 200, is a white jade box similar in shape to the present box, which is referred to as Indian.

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