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Lot Essay
As evidenced by Qing imperial records and the vast holdings of the palace collections, antiquarianism was a defining feature of court culture in the eighteenth century. This fascination with China's ancient past found expression in the commissioning of works inspired by archaic forms and motifs. As Chang Li-tuan notes in The Refined Taste of the Emperor: Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Ch'ing Court, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1997, p. 49, the Qianlong Emperor advocated a return to “ancient ways,” encouraging court artisans to draw inspiration from antiquity in order to imbue their creations with the virtues of sincerity, simplicity, and refinement. This antiquarian aesthetic informed the production of a wide range of jades during his reign. Although some closely reproduced ancient prototypes, many others merely evoked the spirit of antiquity without direct imitation. Numerous examples commissioned by the emperor bear the inscription fanggu (“imitating the ancient”), reflecting this conscious engagement with the past.
The present vase, bearing a neatly engraved Qianlong fanggu mark in elegant clerical script on the base, belongs to the latter type. Rather than copying a specific prototype, the vase alludes to antiquity through its form and material. The swelling, rounded body recalls bronze hu storage vessels of the Warring States to Han periods (5th century BC–AD 3rd century), while the grey mottling and russet inclusions were likely appreciated for their resemblance to the weathered surfaces of ancient jades. Compere the pale greenish-grey jade vase of similar size (33 cm), also bearing a Qianlong fanggu mark, formerly in the William Cleverley Alexander (1840–1916) Collection. Carved in low relief with intertwined archaistic dragons and fitted with dragon-head handles suspending loose rings, the vase was illustrated by S. Charles Nott in Chinese Jade Throughout the Ages, London, 1936, pl. XXXVIII, and later sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28 May 2014, lot 3370.
The present vase, bearing a neatly engraved Qianlong fanggu mark in elegant clerical script on the base, belongs to the latter type. Rather than copying a specific prototype, the vase alludes to antiquity through its form and material. The swelling, rounded body recalls bronze hu storage vessels of the Warring States to Han periods (5th century BC–AD 3rd century), while the grey mottling and russet inclusions were likely appreciated for their resemblance to the weathered surfaces of ancient jades. Compere the pale greenish-grey jade vase of similar size (33 cm), also bearing a Qianlong fanggu mark, formerly in the William Cleverley Alexander (1840–1916) Collection. Carved in low relief with intertwined archaistic dragons and fitted with dragon-head handles suspending loose rings, the vase was illustrated by S. Charles Nott in Chinese Jade Throughout the Ages, London, 1936, pl. XXXVIII, and later sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28 May 2014, lot 3370.