QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)

Details

A FINELY CARVED PALE GREENISH-GREY AND DARK GREY JADE BOULDER
QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)
The thick boulder, of irregular form, is deeply and intricately carved on one side with a bearded scholar seated on a rock ledge, with an attendant to the side, observing a pair of mandarin ducks swimming in a mountain stream below. Tree branches including pine and wutong emerge from between the rocky outcrops, all beneath swirling clouds enveloping the mountain summit. The scene continues on the reverse with further trees growing between the cliffs. The superbly polished stone is of an attractive pale greenish-grey color shading to dark grey with scattered opaque white and russet speckling.
6 7/8 in. (17.5 cm.) high, stand

Provenance

Mark Newman, Esq.
Ashkenazie & Co., San Francisco, 1984.
Dr. Leonard and Mrs. Ann Marsak Collection.

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Lot Essay

Two jade boulders carved in a style similar to that of the present mountain, in the Qing Court Collection, Beijing, are illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 42 - Jadeware (III), Hong Kong, 1995, pls. 72 and 73.

In discussing a white jade boulder illustrated in Chinese Jades from the Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, Hong Kong, 1996, p. 160, no. 127, the author, Robert Kleiner, comments on the Chinese literati fascination with carved jade boulders, and how they "represented miniature idealized landscapes into which the scholar himself could retreat without having to leave his study and they complemented the miniature gardens and trees cultivated by most scholars."

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