A MAGNIFICENT MOGHUL-INSPIRED WHITE JADE RAM'S CUP TOGETHER WITH ITS ORIGINAL TWO-TIERED ZITAN STAND QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG PERIOD

THIS IS A PREMIUM LOT. CLIENTS WHO WISH TO BID ON PREMIUM LOTS ARE REQUESTED TO COMPLETE THE PREMIUM LOT PRE-REGISTRATION 3 WORKING DAYS PRIOR TO THE SALE.

exquisitely carved from a stone of an exceptionally even milky-white tone with superb translucency and finished with a smooth and brilliant polish, the vessel carved in the form of a lobed floral bloom with thin, delicate sides resting on a low foot of conforming lobed shape, the handle formed as the head of a ram elegantly turned to one side, the horns, ears and beard finely executed in meticulous detail and depicting a serene expression, the exterior of the vessel delicately carved in low relief with suspending acanthus leaves at the sides of the lobes, the base further carved with a flower head with gently lobed petals; with an elaborately carved two-tiered zitan and stained bone stand shaped to follow the silhouette of the vessel, the upper tier finely carved with a ram's head in identical posture to the jade cup, with the top surface carved with a design mirroring the base of the jade   

The Tournet Collection, France.

The ram's cup is in impeccably good condition overall, with a glossy and even polish. To the single-tiered stand: The head has been reinforced to the stand. Some parts of the stained bone have been reinforced to the stand. The the double-tiered stand: To the reverse, there is a small area of approx 1.9 by 0.3cm which has broken off and is now missing. Small areas of the stained bone have been reinforced to the stand. The edges of the yellow brocade at the top of the stand is slightly stained. Otherwise both stands remain in tact are in good condition overall.
"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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

THE EMPEROR'S MAGNIFICENT WHITE JADE RAM'S HEAD CUP
Hajni Elias

Exquisitely worked cups carved in this florid yet masculine fashion and made of the purest white jade have their origins in Hindustan from the Mughal period. Mughal jade pieces were first introduced to China around the middle of the Qianlong Emperor's reign. They were submitted as tribute to the emperor who quickly grew very fond of them. The first carved Mughal jade bowl sent from Central Asia as tribute is recorded for AD 1756, and thereafter tribute gifts of this type continued to arrive throughout the Emperor's reign and beyond. At the same time Muslim jade carvers were brought to work in the Palace Workshops to fashion similar wares and as early as 1764, exact copies of Indian jades held at the palace were ordered from the Chinese craftsmen working at the court. The emperor was fascinated by these beautiful objects and wrote more than seventy poems eulogizing the many Mughal-style jade carvings in his collection. In these poems he praised the exceptional skills of the carvers together with the purity of the material. A poem, inscribed on a magnificent white jade shell-shaped cup sold in these rooms, 25th April 2004, lot 50, and composed by the emperor in the mid-Autumn of the jiawu year (equivalent to 1774 AD) is titled In Praise of a Hindustan Jade Drinking Vessel. In this poem the emperor wrote:

Jade from the Western Kun is matchless
for its skilled craftsmanship.
Water mills grinding the jade as thin as paper,
making drinking vessels and bowls for the officials.
Differing in form from what craftsmen have recorded
in the Zhouli.

Half a bulging caltrop, turned-over lotus leaf,
a kind of gardenia supporting the base.
Or one could compare it to an opened oyster shell,
like a bright moon clearly reflected in the water.
The hands find no marks, the eye finds hints
of how it was conceived and executed.
The tools handled with clever contrivance and clear
determination.
I simply cannot keep myself from gazing at it again
and again.
 
From the final words of this poem it is clear that the Qianlong Emperor was full of admiration by the beauty of the cup and his affection for the piece as well as his appreciation of the craftsmanship had no bounds. At least twenty-five extant Mughal-style jades bear the emperor's poems, engraved in the palace workshops. (For further historical details see the article by Teng Shu-ping in the Catalogue of a Special Exhibition of Hindustan Jade in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1983, pp.9-109.)

The present cup in form and design was undoubtedly inspired by the famous 'Shah Jahan cup' in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, one of the finest pieces of Mughal jade recorded. That cup, which is attributed to the 17th century (it also bears an inscription relating it to Shah Jahan and dating it to 1657), would appear to predate the present piece by about a century. It is recorded since 1868, when it was in the collection of Colonel Charles Seton Guthrie, late of the Bengal Engineers, who went to India in 1828, and it entered the Museum's collection in 1962. (See Susan Stronge, 'Colonel Guthrie's Collection: Jades of the Mughal Era', Oriental Art, vol.xxxix, no.4, Winter 1993-94, p.5.)

Mughal-style ram's-head cups made during the Qianlong period follow two distinctive forms and styles. One of an asymmetric gourd shape that closely imitates the Shah Jahan cup, and the other, albeit inspired by the Mughal version, of more deeper lobed form often referred to as the 'Chinese version' of the design. Chinese artists were quick to assimilate certain elements of the foreign art form into their native tradition to form a new and characteristically Chinese style. The 'Chinese' version has walls that are usually of uniform thickness and the surface is generally decorated in relief carving. However, in general Chinese carvers strived, perhaps spurred by the emperor's obsession and exhortations to 'paper' thinness, to achieve a greater degree of thinness in their carvings.

The present piece follows the 'Chinese' version in all its most beautiful features, particularly the elegant floral-lobed walls, the raised flower-shaped foot and the graceful curving of the ram's head that almost 'naturally' forms the handle for the vessel. One closely related cup in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, was included in the Museum's Hindustan Jade exhibition, Taipei, 1983, op.cit., pl. 80 (fig. 1); another in the Palace Museum, Beijing, of similar lobed form but with the ram's head placed facing forward, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures in the Palace Museum. Jadeware (III), Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 161 (fig. 2); and a third of a slightly more formal version, from the Dr. and Mrs. Marvin Gordon collection is published in Magic, Art and Order. Jade in Chinese Culture, Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Spring, 1990, p. 152, pl. 164. See also a cup from a private collection included in the exhibition Chinese Jade Throughout the Ages, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1975, cat.no. 439; and a jade cup of this type but with a handle in the form of a phoenix-head, in the Palace Museum, published in Chinese Jades, Hong Kong, 1997, pl. 78 (fig. 3).

For examples of ram's-head cups that are after the Shah Jahan cup see a vessel in the Seattle Art Museum, without a foot and with the head placed vertically, published in James C.Y. Watt, Chinese Jades from the Collection of the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, 1989, cat.no.99 and colour plate, p.110. A second ram's-head cup in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, with a flat foot, has the animal head turned sideways as on the present piece, but carved as a solid handle, without any visual connection to the gourd; see the Hindustan Jade exhibition, Taipei, 1983, op.cit., pl. 25.

Ram's-head cups are also related to cups of a similar basic form, raised on a flower-shaped foot, but ending in a curled stalk instead of an animal head: two in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, were exhibited ibid., pls.23 and 24; one in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is published in Zhongguo yuqi quanji, vol.6, Shijiazhuang, 1993, pl.293; and a fourth from the collection of John Woolf, London, is illustrated in S. Howard Hansford, Chinese Carved Jades, London, 1968, pl.92. The second of the Taipei cups is inscribed with a poem by the Qianlong Emperor and a date corresponding to AD 1773; see the Hindustan Jade exhibition catalogue, Taipei 1983, op.cit., fig.40; the cup from the Woolf collection bears a Qianlong poem dated in accordance with AD 1775, see ibid., figs.25a and b.

Qianlong's skilful carvers took the design one step further and created a new group of wares that transformed the original aesthetic concept. A series of gourd-shaped jade tea pots with ram's or ibex-head spouts were the result of their creative initiative. See one  - probably the earliest - in the National Palace Museum collection, included in the Hindustan Jade exhibition, Taipei, 1983, op.cit., pl.74 (fig. 4); a slightly later, modified version of Jiaqing mark and period, again from the collection of John Woolf, in Hansford, op.cit., pl.93; and two others of identical form as the last but further simplified in carving style, in Zhongguo meishu quanji: Gongyi meishu bian, vol.9, Beijing, 1991, pl.331, and Christie's Hong Kong, 28th April 1996, lot 2, the former also of a Jiaqing mark and period, from the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing; the latter unmarked.

The splendid and somewhat flamboyant stand made of zitan and stained bone in the shape that cleverly traces the silhouette of the jade cup is also worth noting. This two tiered stand, with the upper tier carved with a ram's head in identical posture to the jade and the surface of the bottom carved in mirror image to the flower-head foot of the cup, was also made by carvers in the Palace Workshop. By imperial command all jade carvings in the Palace were fitted with stands made of wood, ivory or even jade. The stand is an Imperial masterpiece in its own right. It not only enhances the beauty of this cup by giving it an elevated eye-catching position but also confirms its importance in the emperor's collection.