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Lot Essay
The present vase follows the archaic bronze prototype, fanghu, a type of wine vessel used in the rituals of the Shang and Zhou dynasties. By the Qing period, archaic forms and motifs found great popularity at court and a number of jade vessels, such as the present example, were produced to reflect the fashion of the period.
This vase is distinguished by its large size and its pale and even material, which is on a par with the finest examples preserved in the Qing court collection, such as a slightly smaller white jade gu-form vase (24.3 cm. high) with Qianlong fanggu-mark in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in The Refined Taste of the Emperor: Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Ch’ing Court, Taipei, 1997, no. 11; and one of comparable height with flanges in place of mask and ring handles, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 29 May 2019, lot 3028.
A smaller Qianlong-marked jade hu in the Avery Brundage Collection illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, Chinese Treasures from the Avery Brundage Collection, The Asia Society, New York, 1968, no. 64, and previously in the collection of Lord and Lady Cunliffe, included in the Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition, Chinese Jades, London, 1948, pl. X, no. 163. A Qianlong fangu-marked vase with a similar arrangement of decorative motifs and carved from a very similar greyish-green stone from the Sir Isaac and Lady Wolfson Collection was sold at Sotheby's London, 8 June 1982, lot 315. Compare also a monumental spinach-green jade vase and cover with a Qianlong fanggu mark with a cyclical date corresponding to 1787 from the Prince Gong, and the Alan and Simone Hartman Collections, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 28 November 2006, lot 1386.
This vase is distinguished by its large size and its pale and even material, which is on a par with the finest examples preserved in the Qing court collection, such as a slightly smaller white jade gu-form vase (24.3 cm. high) with Qianlong fanggu-mark in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in The Refined Taste of the Emperor: Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Ch’ing Court, Taipei, 1997, no. 11; and one of comparable height with flanges in place of mask and ring handles, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 29 May 2019, lot 3028.
A smaller Qianlong-marked jade hu in the Avery Brundage Collection illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, Chinese Treasures from the Avery Brundage Collection, The Asia Society, New York, 1968, no. 64, and previously in the collection of Lord and Lady Cunliffe, included in the Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition, Chinese Jades, London, 1948, pl. X, no. 163. A Qianlong fangu-marked vase with a similar arrangement of decorative motifs and carved from a very similar greyish-green stone from the Sir Isaac and Lady Wolfson Collection was sold at Sotheby's London, 8 June 1982, lot 315. Compare also a monumental spinach-green jade vase and cover with a Qianlong fanggu mark with a cyclical date corresponding to 1787 from the Prince Gong, and the Alan and Simone Hartman Collections, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 28 November 2006, lot 1386.