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China, 1736-1795. Superbly carved in imitation of an archaic bronze gong. Standing on a slightly splayed foot, the ovoid body and neck finely decorated in low relief with stylized kuilong and phoenix designs accentuated by leiwen and scroll motifs, flanked by the angular scroll-form handle with a playfully clambering chilong and a smaller handle below the elegantly curved spout issuing from a well-detailed beast head and suspending a loose ring above a taotie mask.
The translucent stone shows a smooth polish overall and is of an attractive pale yellow hue with few russet veins and cloudy inclusions.
With a fitted and matching Zitan stand, neatly carved in openwork with scrolling foliage, key-fret, and a dragon and phoenix. Dating from the same period. (2)
Provenance: From the personal collection of Xu Yingkui (1830-1903), Viceroy of Min-Zhe, Guangzhou, China, this piece has been passed down directly through three generations within his family. Xu Yingkui, a first-rank court official, served as Viceroy of Min-Zhe, Governor of Fuzhou, and General of Fujian from 1898 to 1903 during the reign of the Guangxu Emperor (1871-1908). Born into a prestigious gentry family in Guangzhou, Xu was the godson of Empress Cixi and the grandnephew of Lu Xun. He was a poet, scholar, avid art collector, and influential politician. Notably, Xu was appointed Viceroy of Min-Zhe shortly before the Boxer Rebellion. During the rebellion, he famously signed the Mutual Protection of South China Agreement, striving to maintain peace and sovereignty in his province alongside Yuan Shikai, the future president of the Republic of China, and three others, openly defying the Qing court. After the signing of the Peace Agreement between the Eight-Nation Alliance and China, Xu retired. In his retirement, he planned to construct a large and luxurious private garden in Guangzhou, but he passed away before the project could be realized.
Condition: Very good condition with minor wear, little nibbling, and light surface scratches. The stone with natural fissures, some of which may have developed into thin hairline cracks.
Weight: 628 g (excl. stand)
Dimensions: Height 17.5 cm (excl. stand) and 21.2 cm (incl. stand)
The bronze from which the present jade takes its inspiration is the gong, a ritual wine vessel, one of the types that appeared during the Anyang period of the Shang dynasty without being based on earlier ceramic prototypes. By the middle of the Western Zhou dynasty it had already disappeared. These ritual vessels were designed to facilitate pouring the wine, are often cast with fascinating zoomorphic imagery, and all basically share the same general shape, with some of rectangular form and some of more graceful oval section.
Gong vary in the arrangement of their decoration; on some there are horizontal and vertical divisions created by flanges on the body only, while the present example has been decorated with stylized kuilong and phoenix designs, accentuated by leiwen and scroll motifs, all to highlight the soft, lustrous quality of the yellow stone.
The Qianlong Emperor's great love of jade combined with his passion for antiques resulted in his commissioning significant numbers of archaistic jade items for his court. The present example belongs to a small group of vessels made during his reign to imitate Shang and Zhou dynasty bronze gongs, made only for the nobility to use. Bronze gongs were recorded in the Imperial Archives as ‘yi’ vessels. The original form and design for the present jade would have been an archaic bronze wine vessel known as the ‘Zhou Li yi’, illustrated in Xiqing gujian [Catalogue of Chinese ritual bronzes in the collection of the Qianlong Emperor], compiled by Imperial decree in the 16th year of Qianlong period (1751), volume 33, page 12.
Literature comparison:
Only few other examples of this rare form and outstanding quality are known, most of which are preserved in the Qing court collection. A white jade gong of wider proportion, also made without a cover, is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Zhongguo yuqi quanjj – 6 – Qing, Shijiazhuang, 1991, no. 37. For a white jade gong with cover, compare two examples in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, one of which is closely modeled after the bronze original in form and decoration, the other similar in style to the present ewer but of a more flattened form, see The Refined Taste of the Emperor: Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Ch’ing Court, Taipei, 1997, nos. 13 and 20, respectively.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Christie’s Paris, 14 December 2022, lot 535
Price: EUR 277,200 or approx. EUR 297,000 adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A yellow and brown jade archaistic ewer and cover, gong, China, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period
Expert remark: Compare the closely related form, openwork details, yellow color, and size (16.5 cm). Note the presence of a cover.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Related
Auction: Bonhams Hong Kong, 30 November 2022, lot 118
Price: HKD 2,775,000 or approx. EUR 337,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A fine and rare imperial white jade archaistic 'phoenix' vessel, gong, Qianlong
Expert remark: Compare the closely related form, openwork details, and fine carving style. Note the larger size (20.2 cm) and the lack of a cover.
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