清乾隆 碧玉雕「攜琴訪友」山子

carved in the round as an upright landscape depicting a scholar and an attendant carrying a wrapped qin passing on a rocky ledge, crossing over a stream cascading around the jagged base below, with multi-storeyed pavilion built in the mountainous path above and a lofty pine in openwork protruding over the jagged cliff, all below a seated Budai meditating in a cave arbored with intertwined paulownia near the rounded summit, the reverse detailed in contorted relief with further jagged cliffs lined with a variety of trees, the lustrous stone of deep emerald-green colour mottled with white inclusions and pale yellow patches, wood stand carved in the form of swirling waves

紐約蘇富比1980年2月28日，編號246

There is minor surface wear and scratches. There is also a 0.6cm rectangular area on the reverse of the mountain which has been plugged, possibly during original manufacture.
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Impressive for its large size, the carving and scene of the present piece is typical of mountain carvings produced in the 18^thcentury, from the varying depths of intricately detailed carving to the pathway that leads the eye down through the landscape. However it is unusual to find a figure of Budai on such carvings.

Jade mountain carvings were popular amongst the literati and in the imperial courts as objects of contemplation. The scenes were inspired by landscape painting and thus often depicted figures in vast and idealised landscapes, reflecting man’s love for nature and his insignificance in the cosmic realm. Robert Kleiner discusses the Chinese literati’s fascination with carved jade mountains in Chinese Jades from the Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, Hong Kong, 1996, p. 160, and notes that the expansive landscapes were idyllic settings into which the scholar could retreat without having to leave his study.

Compare smaller examples of jade mountain carvings inhabited by scholars, such as a russet and celadon example in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in The Refined Taste of the Emperor: Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Ch’ing Court, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1997, cat. no. 40; one carved from a celadon stone, sold in our New York rooms, 31^st March 2005, lot 58; and a white jade boulder, but depicting horses on one side and a boy with buffalos on the other, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1^st December 2009, lot 1997.