A white jade archaistic vase, fanggu, Qing dynasty, 18th - 19th century | 清十八至十九世紀 白玉仿古饕餮紋方觚

Collection Harold Wesley Hall (1888-1974), thence in the family by descent.

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Harold Wesley Hall（1888-1974）珍藏，此後家族傳承

An almost identical jade vase was depicted in the famous Guwantu (Pictures of Antiquities), discussed in Regina Krahl, ‘Chinese Jade Before Qianlong’, in The Woolf Collection of Chinese Jade, London, 2013, pl. 2e, p. 50. This suggests that vases like the present piece would have been highly treasured by the Yongzheng Emperor, and the interest in this type of archaistic vessels continued throughout the Qing dynasty.

Two similar vases in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, are illustrated in Zhongguo yuqi quanji 6: qing/ the Complete Collection of Chinese Jade, vol. 6: Qing, Shijiazhuang, 1993, pls. 361 and 362, p. 249; a similar pair of spinach-green jade from a five-piece altar set in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (acc. no. A.4-1942 and A.5-1942), is published in the catalogue of the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, London, 1935, no. 2508; compare also an example with less prominent flanges, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 3rd December 2021, lot 3086.