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

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.