A VERY FINELY CARVED MUGHAL-STYLE WHITE JADE BOWL

18TH CENTURY

Details
A VERY FINELY CARVED MUGHAL-STYLE WHITE JADE BOWL
18th century
The gently rounded sides with flaring rim carved standing on a flower-head foot with radiating petals, surrounded by a band of low-relief carved upright leaves around the foot, with two symmetrical flower and leaf compositions at either side, rising towards the rim and forming a curling leaf-tip terminating in a closed flower-bud, the stone highly polished and of milky white tone with pale yellowish areas at the interior, some grey inclusions and faint white streaks
6¼ in. (16 cm.) wide

Lot Essay

This bowl is clearly inspired by 17th Century Mughal jades which reflected first Jahangir's and then Shah Jahan's taste for floral imagery and motifs derived from the world of nature, and used on a wide range of jades produced under their patronage which showed great sophistication of technique and elegance of form. For a Mughal spinach green jade bowl of this type, which is similar in form and decoration to the present lot, see the example in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from the Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection, illustrated by Stephen Markel, Inception and Maturation in Mughal Jades, Marg, vol.XLIV, No.2, The Art of Jade, p.57, colour pls. 11a and 11b. Compare also the more elaborately carved pale celadon jade lobed bowl included in the Special Exhibition of Hindustan Jade in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1983, Catalogue, pp.140 and 141, pl.8.

More from Chinese

View All
View All