18TH CENTURY

Zhang Qian was a Han dynasty imperial envoy and traveller. The subject of Zhang Qian in his log boat was a popular theme during the Ming and early Qing periods, and is most often seen in rhinoceros horn carvings, such as the three examples illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 44 - Bamboo, Wood, Ivory and Rhinoceros Horn Carvings, Hong Kong 1999, nos. 118-20. Rhinoceros horn examples are in numerous public and private collections, several of which are illustrated by T. Fok, Connoisseurship of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, Hong Kong, 1999, nos. 70-4. The representations of Zhang Qian, as well as the log raft, vary in these carvings.
These carvings, as well as the present jade vessel, may all have been inspired by the famous silver example formerly in the collection of the late Lady Percival David included in the exhibition, Chinese Art under the Mongols: The Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368), Cleveland Museum of Art, 1968, no. 37. The silver vessel is inscribed with a poem and the artist's seal, Bishan, denoting Zhu Bishan, a silversmith working during the 14th century.