A large pair of white jade 'immortals' screens, Qing dynasty, late 19th century | 清十九世紀末 白玉群仙祝壽圖插屏一對

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The first panel depicts the god of Longevity Shoulao standing on a pavilion terrace with his companion deer below, while the other depicts the Queen mother’s Xiwangmu as she descents to the Daoist paradise by the yao chi (Jasper pond), on the occasion of her birthday. Each panel is decorated on the reverse with the same design of single Lady immortal set as mirror images, indicating that the two panels were originally conceived as a pair. 

These two panels are well illustrating the imperial style at the Qing court, whereby jade mountains and carved panels should carry the spirit of paintings by famous past masters. Originally advocated by the Qianlong Emperor this precept perpetuated throughout the Qing dynasty. Considered as paintings in stone, jade table screens usually depict scenes from classical, Daoist themes, and idyllic moments in nature. 

Compare a similar table screen in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the museum’s exhibition The Refined Taste of the Emperor, Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Ch’ing Court, 1997, cat. no. 72. See also a pair of similar white jade table screens, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 1st May 1996, lot 683, as well as two other related pairs of jade panels depicting Daoist immortals, set on gnarled wood stands, sold in our New York rooms, the first 20th October 1988, lot 315, and the other, 24th March 1998, lot 377, the latter pair from the collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond.