An exceptional and rare pair of white jade bowls, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period | 清乾隆 白玉光素撇口盌一對

Collection of Henry Brown, of Stocks, Aldbury, near Tring, Herts, no. 29.

Sotheby's London, 25th March 1947, lot 110. 

John Sparks Ltd, London.

An English private collection.

Sotheby's London, 14th November 2000, lot 83.

Henry Brown 收藏，奧爾德伯里，編號29

倫敦蘇富比1947年3月25日，編號110

John Sparks Ltd，倫敦

英國私人收藏

倫敦蘇富比2000年11月14日，編號83

This pair of translucent jade white bowls have flared rims and rest on tapered feet. The Chinese venerated jade from ancient times. As The Book of Rites states, “The great gui is uncarved, so as to manifest its beautiful nature.” By the same token, these bowls are undecorated to showcase the perfection and translucency of the raw jade.

After the Yongzheng reign, jades not only served as interior decoration at the Qing court, but by Qianlong’s reign, jade objects were used in daily life by the imperial family exclusively. Guochao gongshi [History of the court of the Qing dynasty] documents many jades given to the subsidiary palaces of imperial concubines of various ranks, while only the Empress Dowager and the Empress were each given “a pair of jade bowls with gold stands.”

According to Qing court archives, at the imperial banquet held every year on the first day of the fifth lunar month, each dish was served on a 5-­cun-wide white jade platter. The Book of Poetry uses the beauty of jade as a metaphor for the gentleman’s superior moral qualities. By giving his sons names with the jade radical and served them food on jade vessels, the jade-loving Qianlong Emperor probably expressed his wish for them to grow into gentlemen with the virtues of benevolence, loyalty, wisdom, courage, and moral purity, which the Confucian classic attributes also to jade.

盌白玉質，撇口，圈足。中國自古尚玉，《禮記》有曰：「大圭不琢，美其質也」，對盌通體光素無紋飾，良玉不琢，更顯玉質凝潤剔透。

清雍正以降，玉器使用不再限於陳設或裝飾，至乾隆已被用於日常用品，限於皇室貴族使用。據清朝《國朝宮史》中記載配給各級別後妃生活用品的「鋪宮」，僅皇太后及皇后可用「玉盞金台一副」。

據內務府清檔記載，每年正月初一皇帝家宴菜品均用五寸青白玉盤盛之。《詩經》有曰「謙謙君子，溫婉如玉」，玉癡皇帝給孩子們的名字都用玉字旁，用玉器皿與皇子們進膳，可能是他對皇子們的期許，比德於玉，成爲仁、義、智、勇、潔的君子。