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Lot Essay
Previously sold in our London Rooms, 6 June 1994, lot 267.
The combination of the dragon and phoenix is from Daoism, and represents sagacity, long life and benevolence. A closely related 'dragon and phoenix' vase group from the Harvard University Art Museum, is illustrated in Hai-Wai Yi-Chen, Chinese Art in Overseas Collections, Jade I, National Palace Museum, Taiwan, no. 153. Compare also the climbing dragon on a vase carved in openwork, with a similar 'flaming pearl' supported on cloud scrolls, illustrated by S.C. Nott, The Flowery Kingdom, New York, 1947, p. 163, pl. LXXVIII.
The shape of the vase in the present group is in imitation of archaic bronzes, and archaistic jade carvings of the Song dynasty. A closely related white jade example, in the form of an archaic bronze gu of diamond cross-section, also detailed with a dragon on the side of the vase, is illustrated by R. Kleiner, Chinese Jades from the Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, Hong Kong, 1996, p. 189, no. 145. Compare other similar examples, such as a celadon jade gong-shaped vase with brown shadings from the Avery Brundage collection, illustrated by J.M. Hartman, Chinese Jade of Five Centuries, pl. 14; and a white jade gu-shaped vase, illustrated op. cit., pl. 22. For an example of an archaistic jade libation cup with climbing chilong dragons dated to the Song dynasty, see Stones of Virtue: Chinese Jades from the Gerald Godfrey Collection, pl. 15; and another rhyton cup of the Song period carved with a dragon with distinctive short horns similar to the dragon in the present group, illustrated in 'Chinese Jade throughout the Ages', Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, 1973-1975, no. 277.
The combination of the dragon and phoenix is from Daoism, and represents sagacity, long life and benevolence. A closely related 'dragon and phoenix' vase group from the Harvard University Art Museum, is illustrated in Hai-Wai Yi-Chen, Chinese Art in Overseas Collections, Jade I, National Palace Museum, Taiwan, no. 153. Compare also the climbing dragon on a vase carved in openwork, with a similar 'flaming pearl' supported on cloud scrolls, illustrated by S.C. Nott, The Flowery Kingdom, New York, 1947, p. 163, pl. LXXVIII.
The shape of the vase in the present group is in imitation of archaic bronzes, and archaistic jade carvings of the Song dynasty. A closely related white jade example, in the form of an archaic bronze gu of diamond cross-section, also detailed with a dragon on the side of the vase, is illustrated by R. Kleiner, Chinese Jades from the Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, Hong Kong, 1996, p. 189, no. 145. Compare other similar examples, such as a celadon jade gong-shaped vase with brown shadings from the Avery Brundage collection, illustrated by J.M. Hartman, Chinese Jade of Five Centuries, pl. 14; and a white jade gu-shaped vase, illustrated op. cit., pl. 22. For an example of an archaistic jade libation cup with climbing chilong dragons dated to the Song dynasty, see Stones of Virtue: Chinese Jades from the Gerald Godfrey Collection, pl. 15; and another rhyton cup of the Song period carved with a dragon with distinctive short horns similar to the dragon in the present group, illustrated in 'Chinese Jade throughout the Ages', Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, 1973-1975, no. 277.