A Fine and Rare Spinach-Green Jade Brushpot Qing Dynasty, Qianlong period

of cylindrical form raised on five ogee-bracket feet, the exterior beautifully carved and undercut with four scholars and their acolytes in a mountainous landscape, two seated at a table under blossoming boughs, toasting each other's health as a youthful attendant waits at their elbow with a vessel of wine, three other attendants make their way to the table with additional food and wine, on the opposite side a scholar examines a handscroll as another looks on, wine cup in hand, the stone of a mottled deep-green with black and russet-tinged inclusions skillfully incorporated into the carving, smoothly polished, wood stand (2)

Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, by repute.
Ashkenazie & Co., San Francisco.
Acquired by the present owner from the above, August 1984.

Overall excellent condition, possible tiny chip to end of one leaf in foliage below rim to right of pavillion above scholars at table, two lines of russet-tinged internal flaws, skillfully incorporated into the carved lines
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The present work is one of an important group of spinach jade brushpots. The style of the carving of these brushpots, with their layered, angular rockwork, the treatment of figures, foliage and trees, and the illustration of Daoist or literary figural themes, are all closely related to carved bamboo brushpots and jade 'mountains' of the 17th and 18th centuries. These related works depict figures in dramatic stylized rocky settings, far removed from the sophisticated order of the Imperial court, exemplifying the ideal of the scholar who has withdrawn from the mundane. Like many literati objects, a utilitarian object such as the present brushpot becomes, by virtue of its craftmanship and decoration, together with the use of unusual or rare materials, a vehicle for contemplation, a touchstone for the imagination. 

The subject of the present brushpot brings to mind the lines of a poem written by Li Bo during the Tang dynasty, Drinking with a Gentleman of Leisure in the Mountains:

"We have drunk their birth, the mountain flowers, a toast, a toast, a toast, again another... "
(translated by Arthur Cooper, Li Po and Tu Fu, Bungay, Suffolk, 1973, p. 110). 

We see here gentlemen of culture and refinement celebrating the joys of life, deriving pleasure from the ephemeral beauty and fragrance of the blossoms of spring. 

A related spinach-green jade brushpot may be found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Heber R. Bishop Collection, illustrated in Joan M. Hartman, Chinese Jade of Five Centuries, Rutland, 1969, p. 108, plate 27.  Four additional examples, one with four-character Qianlong mark, are illustrated in Zhongguo yuqi quanji, 1995, vol. II, no. 280, p. 614 and Jadeware, the Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1995, vol. III, nos. 168-170, pp. 206-210; four more examples in Taipei are illustrated in Masterworks of Chinese Jade in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, no. 36, and op. cit., Supplement, Taipei, 1973, no 40, and The Refined Taste of the Emperor: Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictoral Jades of the Ch'ing Court, Taipei, 1997, nos. 56, 58, pp. 174-175, 178-179. 

Compare also a brushpot from the Concordia House Collection, inscribed with a date corresponding to 1796 A.D., sold in these rooms, 19th March 2007, lot 50; a smaller example, with date in accordance to 1794 A.D., without feet, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 25th April 2004, lot 12; and another, without feet, from the Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 27th November 2007, lot 1521.