Ɏ A WHITE JADE FIGURE OF ZHANG QIAN ON A PINE-TREE RAFT WITH MATCHING ZITAN STAND, 17TH-18TH CENTURY

拍品描述

Ɏ A WHITE JADE FIGURE OF ZHANG QIAN ON A PINE-TREE RAFT WITH MATCHING ZITAN STAND, 17TH-18TH CENTURY Expert’s note The figure on the raft is an idealized depiction of the Han dynasty imperial envoy and traveller, Zhang Qian. His travels were later embellished into legendary poems in which he is said to have travelled in search of the source of the Yellow River and found himself floating on the Milky Way ('River of Heaven') where he catches sight of the Weaving Maiden and the Cowherd, two mythical lovers separated by the Milky Way. This theme was popular during the late Ming and early Qing period and is more usually seen in contemporary rhinoceros horn carvings, such as the water dropper sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 November 2011, lot 2913, sold for HKD 13,540,000. The subject matter was also clearly favored by the Yongzheng emperor himself, who instructed Court artists to create paintings depicting him in various guises. See a painting from the Qing Court Collection in the Palace Museum, Beijing, depicting the Yongzheng emperor on a raft as an immortal, illustrated in Harmony and Integrity: The Yongzheng Emperor and His Times, Taipei, 2009, p.147, pl. I-76. China. Dexterously carved in openwork to depict the Daoist immortal seated aboard a raft fashioned from a hollowed pine tree trunk still bearing leafy branches towering behind him as he navigates the swirling waters beneath him forming the base. Clad in loose-fitting flowing robes with deeply incised folds, he holds a lingzhi fungus in one hand and a fly-whisk in the other. The finely polished translucent stone is of a white tone with few cloudy inclusions. The matching zitan stand is finely carved in openwork as crashing waves. (2) Dimensions: Length 6.4 cm (excl. stand), 7.7 cm (incl. stand) With a velvet-padded silk storage box. (3) Literature comparison: Compare a closely related jade figure of Zhang Qin on a log raft, included by S. Marchant & Son on the front cover of their 80th anniversary exhibition Chinese Jades from Han to Qing, and illustrated on p. 96, no. 86. Compare a related pale celadon jade peach tree raft with two scholars, with a similar matching wave-form wood stand, dated to the Kangxi period, 17.8 cm long, illustrated by Marchant on their website, inventory number SB49/M1877. Auction result comparison: Type: Closely related Auction: Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8 April 2014, lot 3170 Price: HKD 187,500 or approx. EUR 26,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing Expert remark: Compare the closely related modeling, manner of carving, stone, and subject. Auction result comparison: Type: Closely related Auction: Sotheby’s London, 15 May 2007, lot 61 Price: GBP 12,000 or approx. EUR 24,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing Expert remark: Compare the closely related modeling, manner of carving, stone, and subject with similar wood wave-form stand. This item contains ivory, rhinoceros horn, tortoise shell, and/or some types of tropical wood and is subject to CITES when exporting outside the EU. It is typically not possible to export such items outside of the EU, including to the UK. Therefore, after this item has the necessary trade certificate, it can only be shipped within the EU or picked up in our gallery in person.

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