Bonhams 1793 : A rare pale green jade rectangular panel 18th/19th century

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8 Nov 2012 10:00 GMT London, New Bond Street
Fine Chinese Art
Back to auction 20024

A rare pale green jade rectangular panel

18th/19th century
The jade of even pale green hue, crisply carved on one side with a scene of two fishermen steering their craft down a rapid river beside a rocky bank with pines, two figures in the background carrying loads over their shoulders whilst crossing a humped bridge with a low pavilion in the distance, all beneath an inscription, the reverse with a scholar standing on a cliff contemplating a distant scene of steep mountain slopes enclosing a waterfall and accompanied by a young attendant carrying a wrapped qin, wood stand, box.
22.5cm high x 15.3cm wide (8¾in high x 6in wide) (3).

Estimate:

£60,000 - 80,000
HK$ 710,000 - 940,000
CNY 560,000 - 750,000

Footnotes

十八/十九世紀青玉雕山水人物圖插屏

The inscription reads:

見仁見智性所樂,
畫法迢融隨筆作,
山下出泉匯澗溪,
縈繞千巖注萬壑,
峰巒競秀水爭流,
試參真幻空外求,
紆迴磅礡氣象別,
雲煙過眼意不留.

Which may be translated as:

Different people have different views, this is the joy of human nature;
the techniques of painting are in harmony with following the brush,
the rising springs from the foot of the mountain, converge into ravines and brooks;
entangling and weaving a thousand rocky cliffs, the water pours into ten thousand pools,
the mountains compete in beauty, the water vies to surge forth,
try searching for reality and illusion, seek beyond the void,
majestically circling and twisting, leaving the atmosphere,
misty clouds pass before my eyes, but they leave no trace.

Along the inscription followed by two very faint lines which can probably read:
御......
臣...敬書

and may be translated as:
Imperially......
Respectfully inscribed by Official...

Table screens such as the present lot would have adorned the scholar's desk, providing inspiration and perhaps some momentary relief from the pressures of work. Typically inspired by paintings, the subject matter often reflects the Daoist preoccupation with mountain retreats and retirement from worldly concerns. For related examples from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, see The Refined Taste of the Emperor: Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Ch'ing Court, Taipei, 1997, Catalogue, nos. 67, 71 and 72.

Compare with a related white jade screen, slightly smaller and dated to the Qianlong period, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1 December 2009, lot 1998.