An Archaistic Pale Green Jade 'Dragon and Phoenix' Vase Qing Dynasty, Qianlong Period

of rhombus section and modelled after the archaic bronze gu, the protruding centre rising from a splayed foot and surmounted by a tall everted rim, supported on a base carved as jagged rockwork issuing a lingzhi sprig, the exterior deftly carved in openwork with a high-relief phoenix perched on the rockwork base below a sun emerging from ruyi-shaped clouds, its plumage finely picked out, below a scaly dragon clambering across the neck of the vessel above the lingzhi sprig and resting its head and claws on the rim, the stone of a pale celadon colour mottled with white inclusions with few faint russet patches, wood stand

The overall condition is quite good. There is a small nick to the inner rim below the dragon's head. The dragon's eyebrows have also possibly been chipped. There is an approximately 0.5 cm. chip to the lingzhi clouds under the 'pearl'.
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For another large pale green jade vase in the Palace Museum, Beijing, similarly worked with a long chilong depicted clambering over the rim of the vessel, see Zhongguo yuqi quanji [Complete series on Chinese jades]. vol. 6, Hebei, 1991, pl. 148. See also a smaller Qianlong reign-marked yellow jade vase with similar iconography, illustrated ibid., pls. 146-147.  All three vases share the same bold craftsmanship, with almost identical depiction of the dragon's muscular body, ferocious expression and poise, suggesting they all emanated from the same workshop.