A LARGE CELADON JADE 'PHOENIX' VASE AND COVER QING DYNASTY

of flattened form rendered as a phoenix cocking its head upwards and reticulated with plush tail feathers swelling behind, the wings picked out with multiple layers of plumes and archaistic scrollwork, the body hollowed out to form an ovoid vessel rising from the animal's back with a waisted neck of ovoid section, the canted sides of the cover worked with a band of archaistic taotie masks and surmounted by an undercut and reticulated dragon with a 'flaming pearl', its coiled serpentine body resting on three visible legs grasping the edge of the platform, the stone of pale green colour with buff coloured veins, gilt wood stand 

The present vase is notable for the large size of the boulder from which it has been carved, the size of which is accentuated by the bold lines of the archaistic phoenix. The geometric linearity its wings and tail contrast with the carefully incised feathers and the naturalistic modelling of the bird’s feet, which have been carved with great attention to detail.

This vase belongs to a group of jade vessels that adapted and reinterpreted archaic forms and motifs to suit the aesthetic taste of the time. It is an amalgamation of several bronze types, including bronze ewers cast in the form of mythological birds with similar curling wings and depicted crouching with legs tugged under their body, such as two attributed to the late Western and early Eastern Zhou dynasty, sold at Christie’s New York, the first, 22nd April 1999, lot 194, and the second, from the collection of Robert H. Ellsworth, 17th March 2015, lot 5. The slightly everted rim of the neck, on the other hand, is reminiscent of goose-form ewers made in the Song dynasty, which were in turn inspired by the archaic bronze prototype; see one inlaid with gold and silver, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the Museum’s exhibition Through the Prism of the Past. Antiquarian Trends in Chinese Art of the 16th to 18th century, Taipei, 2003, cat. no. I-30.

Vases of this phoenix-form type are more commonly known in smaller size, such as three vases sold in our New York rooms, the first, 28th/29th September 1989, lot 518, the second and third with loop handles, 17th April 1985, lot 216, and 19th/20th October 1988, lot 23; another, but the phoenix depicted standing and supporting a gu-shaped vase, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Zhongguo yuqi quanji [The complete collection of Chinese jades], vol. 6, Shijiazhuang, 1993, pl. 156; and a much smaller example sold at Christie’s London, 7th February 1977, lot 131. Compare also a pouring vessel in the form of an archaistic phoenix carrying a vase on its back, sold at Christie’s London, 3rd June 1974, lot 165.