AN UNUSUAL 'CHICKEN BONE' JADE VASE

Details

AN UNUSUAL 'CHICKEN BONE' JADE VASE
MING DYNASTY, 17TH CENTURY

Carved in the form of a gnarled upright tree trunk spreading at the base, issuing twisting pine branches on either side and a lingzhi plant growing to one side, the trunk scattered with deeply carved knots, the stone of an opaque greenish-white tone turning to pale brown at the rim
3¾ in. (9.4 cm.) high, stand

Provenance

Sotheby's Hong Kong, 25 November 1987, lot 425

Literature

Robert Kleiner, Chinese Jades from the Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, Hong Kong, 1996, no. 54

Exhibited

Christie's New York, 13-26 March 2001
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, August 2003-December 2004

Lot Essay

Compare with a late Ming vase in the Palace Museum, Beijing in the form of a tree trunk illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Jadeware II, Hong Kong, 1995, no. 162.
Compare also an 18th century example of a white jade tree-trunk form vase, from the Hartman Collection sold in these Rooms, 28 November 2006, lot 1378. The carving of this vase in noticeably more formalised and less free in its depiction of the branches than in the present Ming dynasty example.

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