A small yellow and russet jade 'taotie' gu vase, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period | 清乾隆 黃玉仿古饕餮紋海棠式花觚

Christie's London, 6th June 2000, lot 72.

倫敦佳士得2000年6月6日，編號72

This gu-shaped vase is notable for the luminous honey-yellow stone heightened with warm chestnut inclusions, the quality of which has been accentuated by the low-relief design. The boulder used for making this vase is relatively flawless and is particularly striking for its saturated colouration. Yellow jade was favoured by the Qing Court for its association with the Imperial colour of yellow.

The appreciation of yellow jade is recorded as early as 1388 in the Ko Ku Yao Lun written by Cao Zhao, and translated by Sir Percival David in Chinese Connoisseurship: The Ko Ku Yao Lun: The Essential Criteria of Antiquities, London, 1971, p. 120, where it is noted with regard to the category of yellow jade, that: 'stones with the colour of the chestnut kernel, known also as pure (literally 'sweet') yellow, are the most valuable...'.

Gu, the archaic bronze form of beaker vases, were replicated in various media during the Qing dynasty due to the Qianlong emperor’s fascination with antiquity. A facetted and lobed white jade gu vase, similarly carved in low relief with a taotie mask, also in the De An Tang collection, was included in the exhibition A Romance with Jade, Palace Museum, Beijing, 2004, cat. no. 126; Compare also a facetted vase, similarly carved with a taotie mask, in the Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the exhibition The Refined Taste of the Emperor: Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Ch’ing Court, Taipei, 1997, cat. no. 11.

此黃玉觚玉質溫潤，有褐色糖沁，腹部飾饕餮紋，頸部及腹部下方光素，更顯玉質光亮潤潔。黃玉之黃，或象徵帝王，清廷甚鍾愛之。

黃玉自古備受珍視，明人曹昭在《格古要論》中提及：「黃玉如粟者為貴謂之甘黃玉焦黃者次之。」觚者，青銅古器。清帝皆尚古品，傾力着造，所製之觚，或出戟，或無戟，見各類材質、紋樣、制式之品，如銅、掐絲琺瑯、瓷、玉等。對比一件白玉獸面紋海棠式觚雕飾相類，同為德安堂收藏，著錄於《玉緣》，故宮博物院，北京，2004年，編號126。另見台北故宮博物院藏一例白玉雕仿古觚，著錄於《宮廷之雅：清代仿古及畫意玉器特展圖錄》，台北，1997年，編號11。