The Property of a Gentleman (lots 586-594)
A rare and exquisite spinach green jade 'Yuanxiao Festival' circular table screen and stand
Qianlong
The circular screen finely worked in high relief, one side with a scene of foreigners carrying exotic tributes up winding rocky mountain paths during the first fifteen days of the lunar New Year, including Sogdian emissaries bearing the banner 'wanguo laichao' followed by an entourage carrying and pushing carts, the reverse with further Middle Eastern emisarries seated atop an elephant with musicians hammering gong at the side, all travelling amongst landscape with lush pine trees and wispy clouds; the other side with further landscape scene of the three friends of winter amongst rockworks, the jade screen sturdily steated atop an accompanying naturalistic stand, ornately worked in reticulation featuring dense growth of stylistic lotus sprays on an elaborate pedestal.
31cm high. (2).
The circular screen finely worked in high relief, one side with a scene of foreigners carrying exotic tributes up winding rocky mountain paths during the first fifteen days of the lunar New Year, including Sogdian emissaries bearing the banner 'wanguo laichao' followed by an entourage carrying and pushing carts, the reverse with further Middle Eastern emisarries seated atop an elephant with musicians hammering gong at the side, all travelling amongst landscape with lush pine trees and wispy clouds; the other side with further landscape scene of the three friends of winter amongst rockworks, the jade screen sturdily steated atop an accompanying naturalistic stand, ornately worked in reticulation featuring dense growth of stylistic lotus sprays on an elaborate pedestal.
31cm high. (2).
Estimate:
HK$ 1.5 million - 2 million
US$ 190,000 - 260,000
£130,000 - 170,000
US$ 190,000 - 260,000
£130,000 - 170,000
Footnotes
- Provenance 來源:
Major R.F.D. Minett, Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC)
Captain Arnold Houghton "Newk" Newcomb, The United States Navy (USN)
Sotheby's London, 25 February 1975, lot 24
Alan & Simone Hartman collection
Christie's Hong Kong, 27 November 2007, lot 1513
Exhibited 展覽:
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, August 2003 - December 2004
Illustrated 出版:
Robert Kleiner, Chinese Jades from the Collection of Alan and Simore Hartman, Hong Kong, 1996, no.120
Yang Boda wrote and described the current lot as "carved from jade presumably from Hetian or the Manas River near Tian Shan... exceptionally fine example of spinach green jade... made of spinach green jade with an even, mellow tone, this screen is finely carved and rich in detail, vividly depicting verdant hills with meandering lotus blossoms born on leafy sprigs". Yang Boda also compares the current lot to examples from the Imperial Qing collection, "it bears a great resemblance to two pieces in the Imperial Qing collection, both made by Yangzhou artisans in eighteenth century under the supervision of authorities in charge of salt and related affairs in the Lianghuai region. There is no doubt that the current screen ranks amongst the finest examples of spinach green jades".
The finely worked scene of the lunar New Year is rendered with particularly interesting details of foreigners bearing tributes to the Emperor, a subject of great interest to the Qianlong Emperor. The figures are depicted with unique caps: the pointed cone-shaped headwear refers to Sogdian cultures; where the wrapped cloth turban and elephant suggest Middle Eastern cultures instead. The banner reads wanguo laichao which literally translates as 'tributes from ten thousand nations', signifying the tradition of the Imperial court receiving foreign dignitaries and their offerings during the first fifteen days of lunar New Year, an ancient heritage which has been recorded since the Han dynasty by the Grand Historian Sima Qian.
A comparable example of a pair of white jade circular table screens is in the Qing court collection, Palace Museum, Beijing, see Jadeware II. The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Shanghai, 2008, pp.88-89, no.61. See also a spinach green jade 'hunting scene' circular table screen offered in these rooms, The Harold E. Stack Collection of Chinese Jades, 24 November 2012, lot 204.
清乾隆 碧玉萬國來潮插屏連座
Category: Asian Art / Chinese Works of Art
Auction terms and conditions
Contacts
Julian King
Bonhams
Work
Suite 1122
Hong Kong
WorkTel:
+852 91688772
FaxFax: +852 29184320
Specialist
-
Chinese Works of Art