Lot 3006
  • 3006

A RARE WHITE AND RUSSET JADE ARCHER'S RING INSCRIBED WITH AN IMPERIAL POEM IN ITS ORIGINAL CINNABAR LACQUER BOX AND COVER QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG PERIOD

Estimate
2,000,000 - 3,000,000 HKD
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Description

  • jade, lacquer
the exterior of the white jade archer's ring worked in low relief with General Li Guang and an attendant standing before the rock into which the arrowhead penetrated, the russet patch of the white stone incised with an imperial poem denoting Li Guang's valour and followed by a Qianlong yuti mark and two seal marks reading tai and pu ('great gem'), fitted with a gold liner on the interior, the cinnabar lacquer box and cover carved on the top of the cover with a stylised phoenix against a geometric diapered ground, the sides with a frieze enclosing a fruiting and flowering scroll, the sides of the box similarly decorated, the base with a soaring qilin against a diapered ground, the interior lacquered black

Provenance

The box and cover: Charles Vignier, Paris (label).

Catalogue Note

The poem, titled Song for 'Li Guang shoots a tiger' jade archer’s thumb ring and dated to 1788, can be translated as follows:

     Arrows free from conscious mind penetrate rocks,
           but consciously shot they do not,
     But since ultimate principles are never found
           in peculiar patterns,  
     No wonder Li Guang cut his own throat
           for his disgrace out on the frontier,
     And the misfortune he caused himself at Baling
           brought the former general humiliation.  

White jade archer's thumb rings, such as this piece, were especially valued for their attractive colouration and for the ring's association with the owner's Manchu identity. The Manchu nation rose to power on horseback, and archery was an essential part of every Manchu warrior's training. The Qianlong Emperor, a keen huntsman who was especially proud of his skills in archery, often had himself depicted while shooting his prey, as seen on the painting entitled Taking a Stag with a Mighty Arrow, from the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, included in the exhibition Splendours of China's Forbidden City, The Field Museum, Chicago, 2004, cat. no. 117, where he is depicted wearing an archer's thumb ring which appears to be made of white jade. For more discussion on thumb rings, see lot 3023. For similar inscribed archer's thumb rings, see for example a white and russet jade one, sold in our Paris rooms, 13th June 2012, lot 44.

The decoration of the present thumb ring tells the story of Li Guang (d. 119 BC), a renowned general of the Western Han period. According to Sima Qian's (145-90 BC) Shiji [Records of the grand historian], Li Guang was highly skilled in archery and once shot an arrow deeply into a rock which he mistook as a crouching tiger.