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A SUPERB WHITE JADE BOWL AND COVER -

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A SUPERB WHITE JADE BOWL AND COVER
Estimate
(Set Currency)
    HK$2,000,000 - HK$2,500,000
  • ($258,847 - $323,558)

Sale Information

Sale 2811
The Imperial Sale Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art
31 May 2010
Hong Kong Buy Catalog





Lot Description

A SUPERB WHITE JADE BOWL AND COVER
QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)

The covered bowl of globular shape, carved in low relief throughout with scattered medallions variously enclosing bats suspending peaches, pomegranates, finger citrons, lingzhi fungus, peony blossoms, lotus and chrysanthemums, the bowl flanked by a pair of loop handles surmounted by bats and suspending loose rings, with four further rings suspended from the cover finial shaped as the leafy top of a pomegranate detailed with ruyi-heads enclosing small shou symbols, the semi-translucent stone of a creamy-white tone
5 1/2 in. (14.3 cm.) overall height, stand


清乾隆 白玉團花三多奩

白玉料，呈石榴形，子母口，圈足，局部可見黃斑。中間分開，一剖為二。上部為蓋，頂飾花萼形鈕，鈕頂花萼邊雕四組福壽如意頭，鈕花萼旁飾四個如意扣，各套一環。器體兩側如意耳，耳上雕蝙蝠展翅環抱如意，耳各套一環。外壁通體凸雕團花，有菊花、牡丹花上蝙蝠翩翩、蝙蝠蟠桃、芝仙祝壽、三多、葡萄等吉祥圖案。奩為古代婦女盛香物或梳妝用品之器，此奩為標準的清朝製品。

北京故宮博物院藏有一件與此器相似的白玉奩，見《中國玉器全集‧6‧清》圖版107。

此器為哈特曼伉儷之舊藏，並著錄在 Robert Kleiner 著《 Chinese Jades from the Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman Collection》圖版80 號。2001年3月於紐約佳士得展出，2003年8月至2004年12月於美國波士頓藝術博物館展出。

Lot Condition Report
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Literature

Robert Kleiner, Chinese Jades from the Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, Hong Kong, 1996, no. 80

Exhibited

Christie's New York, 13-26 March 2001
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, August 2003 - December 2004

Lot Notes

The shape of this bowl is unusually deep and globular. Two very similar covered vessels are in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Zhongguo Yuqi Quanji, vol. 6, pl. 100 with nearly identical medallions but lacking the rings, and pl. 107 with a similar style of cover; while another from the Tianjin Municipal Museum is illustrated in Cang Yu, Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 207. Two related covered bowls, known as lian or cosmetic boxes, similarly modelled with loose rings, are illustrated in Jadeware (III), The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1995, pls. 197 and 198. Cf. also a bowl illustrated in Jade, Ch'ing Dynasty Treasures from the National Museum of History, Taipei, 1997, pl. 200.

The shape of the present vessel is loosely based on an archaic bronze shape, the ding, dating from the 6th and 5th centuries B. C., such the example from the Museum of Eastern Art, Oxford, illustrated by William Watson, Ancient Chinese Bronzes, London, 1977, pl. 66a. The ding was a food container that varied in shape in different periods and depending on the region, but typically, it is characterised by a rounded body, three columnar legs, upright flange handles and loop handles on the cover.

The archaistic form of the bowl is juxtaposed against the Qing style of decoration. These roundels were also popularly found on Japanese textiles and later adopted as a design on Yongzheng and Qianlong famille rose porcelains, such as the pair of bowls sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1 May 1995, lot 669.

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