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Lot Essay
A white jade vessel of similar form is illustrated in the exhibition catalogue The Refined Taste of the Emperor: Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Ch'ing Court, National Palace Museum, Taiwan, 1997, no. 20.
The bronze vessel from which the present lot takes inspiration is the guang; archaic examples would normally have been accompanied by a cover in zoomorphic form. Early bronze vessels dated to 11th/10th century B. C. are illustrated by W. Watson, Ancient Chinese Bronzes, pls. 31a and 31b. It is the ultimate testament of a consumate master craftsman to have been able to conceive and combine elegant form with confident subtly defined motifs, working the pure white raw material to its best and fullest advantage.
For a spinach jade 'dragon-tail' guang with the exterior carved as a dragon and inscribed with a Qianlong poem eulogising archaism, dated to A.D. 1787, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, see Zhongguo Meishu Quanji, vol. 9, no. 318; another spinach jade guang without inscription in the National Palace Museum, Taibei, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, The Refined Taste of the Emperor: Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Ch'ing Court, p. 127.
The bronze vessel from which the present lot takes inspiration is the guang; archaic examples would normally have been accompanied by a cover in zoomorphic form. Early bronze vessels dated to 11th/10th century B. C. are illustrated by W. Watson, Ancient Chinese Bronzes, pls. 31a and 31b. It is the ultimate testament of a consumate master craftsman to have been able to conceive and combine elegant form with confident subtly defined motifs, working the pure white raw material to its best and fullest advantage.
For a spinach jade 'dragon-tail' guang with the exterior carved as a dragon and inscribed with a Qianlong poem eulogising archaism, dated to A.D. 1787, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, see Zhongguo Meishu Quanji, vol. 9, no. 318; another spinach jade guang without inscription in the National Palace Museum, Taibei, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, The Refined Taste of the Emperor: Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Ch'ing Court, p. 127.