Footnotes

十八世紀 青玉雕痕都斯坦式雙耳盌

Provenance: Bonhams London, 15 May 2014, lot 163
A distinguished English private collection

來源：倫敦邦翰斯，2014年5月15日，拍品編號163
英國顯貴私人收藏

Mughal jade vessels are renowned for their exceptionally thinly carved walls and naturalistic motifs. Such finely carved pieces from Mughal India, Xinjiang and Mongolia are understood to have been introduced to the Imperial Court during the Qianlong reign period as tribute ware. It appears that the first documented piece arrived in 1758, and further pieces were presented to the Imperial Court from 1760 onwards, once Xinjiang was secured under the Qing administrative control.

The Qianlong emperor greatly admired the fine quality of the Mughal jade workmanship, and wrote poems praising the Mughal pieces in his collection, describing them as 'thin as paper'. Chinese carvers strove to imitate the Mughal style, and arguably even surpassed the Mughal carvers in technical fineness of their carving. The thinness of the walls and simplicity of the carving in the Mughal style is particularly well suited to revealing the beauty of the jade stone itself. Indeed the apparent thinness is often as much the effect of the delicate translucency of the stone as it is a reflection of the carver's masterful skill.

A number of Mughal and Mughal-style jade pieces from the Imperial collections are now in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, of which many were included in the Special Exhibition Exquisite Beauty - Islamic Jades, Taipei, 2007. See for example the open dish form, and small handles shaped like gently dropping fruit, on nos.48 (incised with a Qianlong mark) and 56; see also the similar treatment of the fruit handles and soft greyish-green stone of no.57. Another similar example from the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum: Jade 10: Qing Dynasty, Beijing, 2011, no.217.