QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795), THE JADES QIANLONG PERIOD OR EARLIER

Details

A JADE-INSET CLOISONNÉ ENAMEL RUYI SCEPTER
QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795), THE JADES QIANLONG PERIOD OR EARLIER
The ruyi head is inset with a white jade plaque carved and pierced with a bat above a peony flower surrounded by tendrils within a gilt and blue enamel key-fret border. The handle is finely enameled on the top and the underside with flowers in shaded blue, yellow and red and linked foliate and archaistic scrolls, those on the top between white jade plaques in the center and at the end, both plaques carved and pierced with bats, the bats on the center plaque flanking a shou character. The gilded sides are inlaid with blue enamel archaic scrolls and the tip is pierced for the attachment of a silk tassel.
16 7/8 in. (43 cm.) long

Provenance

Lever Collection, acquired prior to 1995.
Christie's London, 10 May 2016, lot 32.

Brought to you by

Olivia Hamilton

asianartny@christies.com +1 212 636 2180

Lot Essay

Ruyi scepters were popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, particularly to be given as gifts on auspicious occasions such as birthdays. They were made in a wide variety of materials, however cloisonné examples were more typically inset with openwork gilt bronze, such as the ruyi scepter in the Royal Scottish Museum in Edinburgh, illustrated by Sir H. Garner, Chinese and Japanese Cloisonné Enamels, London, 1962, pl. 69B. The inset jade plaques of the present scepter are very unusual.

One example of a jade-inset ruyi scepter in the Phoenix Art Museum was included in the exhibition Cloisonné, Chinese Enamels from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties, 2011, and illustrated in the Catalogue, p. 293, no. 136. A cloisonné and gilt bronze ruyi scepter is illustrated ibid. p. 293, no. 135, and another example sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 May 2006, lot 1559.

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