Important Chinese Art

Important Chinese Art

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 3680. A white jade archaistic 'duck and lotus' group, Qing dynasty, 18th century |  清十八世紀 白玉仿古銜蓮寶鴨.

The Victor Shaw Collection of Chinese Jades | 邵維錫藏中國玉雕

A white jade archaistic 'duck and lotus' group, Qing dynasty, 18th century | 清十八世紀 白玉仿古銜蓮寶鴨

Auction Closed

October 9, 10:57 AM GMT

Estimate

500,000 - 600,000 HKD

Lot Details

Description

The Victor Shaw Collection of Chinese Jades

A white jade archaistic 'duck and lotus' group, 

Qing dynasty, 18th century

邵維錫藏中國玉雕

清十八世紀 白玉仿古銜蓮寶鴨


wood stand

13.8 cm

The decoration incorporating the archaistic scrolling motifs to the plumage of the present piece demonstrates the Qianlong Emperor’s fascination with archaic and ancient objects. The Emperor is recorded to have exhorted his court and craftsmen to look to China's archaic past for moral guidance and artistic inspiration. For related examples of archaistic jade ducks, see three carvings dated to the 18th century, in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, illustrated by Michael Knight, He Li, Terese Tse Bartholomew, Later Chinese Jades: Ming Dynasty to Early Twentieth Century from the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, San Francisco, 2007, cat. nos 279, 280 and 283.


The original form and design for this archaistic ‘duck and lotus’ group would have been an archaic bronze vessel known as zhou fu zun, published in xuanhe bo gu tu (illustrated Catalogue of Antique Objects from the Xuanhe Hall), a catalogue on archaic bronze objects completed towards the end of the Xuanhe period (1119-25) of the Northern Song dynasty. For two examples of the bronze prototype from the Spring and Autumn period, see Rong Geng, Shang Zhou Yi Qi Tong Kao, vol. 2, Beijing, 1941, pls 694 and 695.


類似以仿古紋飾雕刻的寶鴨擺件,可比較三件於三藩市亞洲藝術博物館藏的十八世紀玉寶鴨,皆以方頭棱角處理整體線條,且雕琢仿古變體雲紋、雷紋、回紋為飾,見 Michael Knight、賀利及謝瑞華合著,《Later Chinese Jades: Ming Dynasty to Early Twentieth Century from the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco》,三藩市,2007年,編號279、280及283。


此式仿古寳鴨原型見於宣和《博古圖錄》,記為周鳧尊,見(宋)王黼等撰,《博古圖錄》,明萬曆十六年(1588)泊如齋刊本,卷七,頁10。然目前所見青銅鳧尊最早只能到春秋時期,且無提樑和瓶頸,參考兩件藏於日本之春秋青銅鳧尊,見容庚著,《商周彝器通考》,卷下,北京,1941年,編號694及695。