18TH CENTURY

Details

A CELADON JADE VASE, FANG GU
18TH CENTURY
Of tall slender form with rectangular cross-section, finely carved on the mid-section with a taotie mask on each facing side, the trumpet neck designed with stylised cicada lappets in shallow relief and flanked with a pair of protruding single-horned animal-heads on each side, all supported on a splayed foot similarly carved with cicada lappets, the stone with areas of russet inclusions, minute rim nibble
9½ in. (24 cm.) high

Provenance

Previously sold at Christies Hong Kong, 30 October 2000, lot 686

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

The shape is inspired by an archaic bronze ritual vessel with a long cylindrical body and a flared mouthrim. The taotie-mask cast on the mid-section of the bronze vessel is replicated in stylised form on the present jade vase. Rather than keeping to its cylindrical form, the jade example is of a rectangular cross-section which is probably a more practical shape to carve. A similar jade gu in the National Palace Museum was included in the exhibition, The Refined Taste of the Emperor: Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Ch'ing Court, illustrated in the catalogue, p. 79, where it is compared with its related bronze version dated to the late Shang dynasty, p. 78.

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