A FINE WHITE JADE 'CHRYSANTHEMUM' CENSER AND COVER QING DYNASTY

skillfully carved, of compressed globular form, the exterior with convex flutes, the shoulder of the body with four pierced bosses depicting chrysanthemums and scrolling foliage, the domed cover surmounted by a similar boss, all on a low circular foot carved with a three-tiered chrysanthemum blossom, the interior of the body with concave flutes and stylized cross-hatched center, the interior of the cover similarly fluted, the stone of a pale grayish-white with faint russet veining, wood stand (3)

Mr. Stanley Charles Nott, by repute.
Mrs. George Vetlesen, New York, by repute.
Ashkenazie & Co., San Francisco.
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1982.

The degree of finish to the present censer is exceptional, extending not only to the underside of the foot, as is common with Mughal style jades of this period, but also to the interiors of the body and the cover, which would not have been visible during use. 

For a censer and cover with similar openwork bosses to the cover and at the shoulder of the base, from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Manheim, see Joan M. Hartman, Three Dynasties of Jade, Indianapolis, 1971, no. 52, p. 32. The present example differs from the Manheim censer in the form of the body with its rounded shoulder, alluding to the form of a Buddhist alms bowl, and in the delicacy of the presentation of the bosses. For another example of this form, with lotus-petal-carved body and pierced twin 'handles' at the shoulder, see Roger Keverne et al, Jade, London, 1995, fig. 126, p. 178. The execution of the stylized chrysanthemum blossom on the underside of the foot of the present example is similar to that on a pair of dishes in the Baur Collection, illustrated in Pierre-F. Schneeberger, The Baur Collection, Chinese Jades and other Hardstones, Geneva, 1976, nos. B 6-7. 

The provenance of the present piece is also notable for having been in two important collections, that of Stanley Charles Nott and Mrs. George Vetlesen. Nott was an important dealer in New York and Florida who authored a number of books on the art of the Chinese jade. His collection is now held in the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida. Jade carvings  from the collection of Mrs. George Vetlesen are now in the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.