CHINE, DYNASTIE QING, EPOQUE QIANLONG (1736-1795)

The Emperor Qianlong greatly admired Chinese jade carvings, but the contemporary jades for which he reserved his greatest praise were not Chinese, but those he termed 'Hindustan' (Hendusitan or Wendusitan) jades. Such was his fascination with these foreign jades that in AD 1768 he wrote a scholarly text, entitled Tianzhu wuyindu kao'e, on the geography of Hindustan and the derivation of its name. The area he identified was in what is now northern India centering on the city of Agra. In the seventeenth century this area was part of the Mughal Empire and thus the jades from this region are today often referred to as 'Mughal' jades. These 'Mughal' jades were so highly regarded by the Qianlong Emperor that lapidaries working for the Chinese court were commissioned to make jade items in Mughal style.
See a similarly decorated gold and ruby-inlaid white jade bowl, inscribed with an imperial poem by the Emperor Qianlong, dated 1786, is in the Palace Museum collection in Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - Treasures of Imperial Court, Hong Kong 2004, p. 26, no. 21.The decoration on the current dish shares many features with other Hindustan jades. The handles formed from flower buds and acanthus leaves may be seen on several items of different shapes in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taiwan Catalogue of a Special Exhibition of Hindustan Jade in the National Palace Museum, 1983, pls. 6, 7, 8, 47, 58 and 59 and also on a jar in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Jadeware III, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Commercial Press, Hong Kong, 1995, p. 285, no. 7.