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Lot Essay
Birds shown in pairs seated beside each other most likely represent the affection of a couple living in harmony, as is the case with mandarin ducks, which are thought to mate for life. Another white jade carving of two birds, dated Song-Yuan, in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Philip Chu, is illustrated by Ip Yee, Chinese Jade Carvings, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1983, pp. 200-1. The white stone also has russet skin that highlights the wings and heads of the birds, but not in as specific a manner as seen on the heads of the present birds. See, also, the white jade box and cover dating to the Song dynasty with handle in the form of two mandarin ducks with beaks touching, illustrated by Gu Fang (ed.) in The Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China, vol. 1, Beijing, 2005, p. 30. The box was excavated from the tomb of one of the Qianlong Emperor’s sons in Miyun, Beijing, and is now in the Capital Museum, Beijing.
What makes the present carving of particular interest, beyond the superb quality of the white stone and the delicacy of the carving, is the mark, Xiuneisi yu zuo suo (the imperial jade workshop of Xiuneisi) finely incised on the tail of one bird. During the Song period, the Xiuneisi workshop was a section of a department that was involved in the construction and maintenance of royal buildings as well as making building materials. In the late Southern Song and Yuan periods, it is recorded as also producing fine objects in precious materials for palace use. The workshop is discussed by James C. Watt in the exhibition catalogue, Chinese Jade from Han to Qing, The Asia Society, New York, 1980, pp. 145-47, in relationship to four small white archaistic jade objects, each inscribed with a lengthy inscription, that were included in the exhibition, pp. 148-50 and discussed by Watt, pp. 144-47. The inscriptions cite the place of manufacture as the jade workshop of the office of Xiuneisi and dates that would place them between 1112-1124 during the reign of the Northern Song scholar-emperor Huizong (1101-1125). Another group of ten small related white jade objects, also finely inscribed with inscriptions, originally in the collection of Stephen Junkunc III, was sold at Christie’s New York, 22 March 2007, lot 132. The group was fully discussed by Jenny F. So, in an essay, “The Case for (or Against) Huizong’s Jades”. Of the ten jades that comprised the group, So discusses five which have “archaistic underpinnings,” while deeming the others to be of Qing date.
What makes the present carving of particular interest, beyond the superb quality of the white stone and the delicacy of the carving, is the mark, Xiuneisi yu zuo suo (the imperial jade workshop of Xiuneisi) finely incised on the tail of one bird. During the Song period, the Xiuneisi workshop was a section of a department that was involved in the construction and maintenance of royal buildings as well as making building materials. In the late Southern Song and Yuan periods, it is recorded as also producing fine objects in precious materials for palace use. The workshop is discussed by James C. Watt in the exhibition catalogue, Chinese Jade from Han to Qing, The Asia Society, New York, 1980, pp. 145-47, in relationship to four small white archaistic jade objects, each inscribed with a lengthy inscription, that were included in the exhibition, pp. 148-50 and discussed by Watt, pp. 144-47. The inscriptions cite the place of manufacture as the jade workshop of the office of Xiuneisi and dates that would place them between 1112-1124 during the reign of the Northern Song scholar-emperor Huizong (1101-1125). Another group of ten small related white jade objects, also finely inscribed with inscriptions, originally in the collection of Stephen Junkunc III, was sold at Christie’s New York, 22 March 2007, lot 132. The group was fully discussed by Jenny F. So, in an essay, “The Case for (or Against) Huizong’s Jades”. Of the ten jades that comprised the group, So discusses five which have “archaistic underpinnings,” while deeming the others to be of Qing date.