A RARE CARVED PALE CELADON JADE CIRCULAR TABLE SCREEN

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THE CLEVERLY JADE TABLE SCREEN In March 1843, the 24-year-old Charles St George Cleverly (1819-1897), a newly qualified architect and surveyor from County Cork in Ireland, boarded the Emma in Portsmouth and embarked on a five-month-long sea voyage to Hong Kong. Here Cleverly worked as the second Surveyor General of Hong Kong from 1846 to 1865, when he directed the design and construction of many private and public buildings, drainage systems and road structures. Many of these buildings remain as important landmarks in the city today. The most famous monument that was erected under Cleverly's supervision is perhaps Government House, which took four years to complete starting from 1851. Sir John Bowring, the fourth Governor of Hong Kong (1854-1859), was Government House's first resident in October 1855. Twenty-five of Hong Kong's twenty-eight colonial Governors lived in this building, and it is where the Chief Executive of Hong Kong officially resides today. Apart from Government House, Cleverly also spearheaded the construction of the prominent St. John's Cathedral in 1849, Zetland Hall in 1853 and Old Stanley Police Station in 1859. As a determined and dedicated leader, Cleverly fought tirelessly for government funds for his projects and never compromised on quality when the budget was tight. He learnt Cantonese in order to communicate better with his Chinese workforce, and paid his men out of his own pocket when their wages were not given to them on time. The current magnificent jade screen was acquired by Cleverly during his stay in Hong Kong, probably gifted to him as a token of appreciation for all his outstanding contributions to the island. On May 17, 1997, the Weekend Telegraph published a memoir dedicated to him, written by Cleverly's great-grandson Charles Peter Cleverly, entitled 'My Ancestor Built Hong Kong'. 'Cleverly Street' in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong, is still named after this remarkable architect.

A RARE CARVED PALE CELADON JADE CIRCULAR TABLE SCREEN

QING DYNASTY, 18TH-19TH CENTURY

Details

A RARE CARVED PALE CELADON JADE CIRCULAR TABLE SCREEN
QING DYNASTY, 18TH-19TH CENTURY
The front of the table screen is exquisitely carved with a mythical rocky landscape scene, depicting two bearded immortals accompanied by a young boy attendant walking through tall pine and wutong trees to reach a pavilion visible in the far distance. The reverse is decorated with two deer resting in a grotto beside a lingzhi spray and above a flowing river. The stone is of a pale celadon tone with some lighter inclusions.
9 1/2 in. (24 cm.) diam., wood stand

Provenance

Charles St. George Cleverly (1819-1897), thence by descent to the current owners

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Lot Essay

The present circular jade plaque is impressive for its large size as well as the thickness of the material, which measures just over 1 cm. The lapidary artist skillfully created idealistic landscape scenes from the natural stone, transporting the viewer into a tranquil place with flowing rivers, craggy rocks and tall trees. Table screens were important decorative objects for the scholar's studio during the Qing dynasty, with the more precious ones matched with elaborate wood frames or stands. During the Qianlong period (1736-1795), the emperor encouraged jade craftsmen to obtain inspiration from famous classical paintings. It is known that a number of paintings from the Emperor's own collection were ordered to be reproduced in jades, such as the famous painting entitled, Travellers in the Mountain, by the eminent painter Guan Tong of the Five Dynasties (AD 907-960). The Qianlong Emperor particularly favoured jade landscape carvings of this type. In one of his imperial poems, as discussed in an essay by Yang Boda, cf. Arts of Asia, 'Jade: Emperor Ch'ien Lung's collection in the Palace Museum, Peking', March-April 1992, the Emperor noted in reference to a jade panel:

'This piece of precious jade slab is carved into a panel with the scene of "A Riverside City on a Spring Morning". Imagination is exerted to turn the natural undulation or ruggedness into an appropriate landscape... It takes ten days to carve a tiny bit of water and five days to shape a piece of rock. The crafting is indeed very time-consuming'.
Compare the current lot to a white jade table screen of similar size, dated to the Qianlong period and carved with a mountainous landscape scene with scholars by a pavilion, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1 December 2010, lot 3006.

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