拍品 3403
  • 3403

清乾隆 晶石巧雕遊龍戲鳳花插 |

估價
1,000,000 - 1,500,000 HKD
Log in to view results
招標截止

描述

  • quartz
  • 16.5 公分,6 1/2 英寸;通高 21 公分,8 1/4 英寸

Condition

null
我們很高興為您提供上述拍品狀況報告。由於敝公司非專業修復人員,在此敦促您向其他專業修復人員索取諮詢,以獲得更詳盡、專業之報告。

準買家應該檢查每款拍品以確認其狀況,蘇富比所作的任何陳述均為專業主觀看法而非事實陳述。準買家應參考有關該拍賣的重要通知(見圖錄)。

雖然本狀況報告或有針對某拍品之討論,但所有拍賣品均根據印於圖錄內之業務規則以拍賣時狀況出售。

拍品資料及來源

This outstanding vase group, carved from green quartz of the most delicate gem-like colour, is a truly superb desk ornament, possibly a product of the Zaobanchu (Imperial Palace Workshops), created to furnish Imperial halls in the Qianlong period. Sumptuously carved in varying levels of relief with opulent iconography of a dragon, phoenix and lingzhi amidst mystical swirling clouds and mountain peaks, its use would have transcended that of a mere flower receptacle to be a conduit for the admirer to transport himself to an imaginary world. Preserved with its original superbly carved wood stand, itself no doubt a product of the Palace Workshops, it is an extraordinary legacy of the sumptuous Qianlong reign.

The green quartz it is carved from, a rare material that naturally occurs when ‘vernarine’ green is suffused in the silicate crystal, is of superlative quality. Naturally occurring quartz including rock crystal has been recorded and admired as far back as the Tang dynasty, where it is described as a product of 'water turned to stone' and 'a beautiful material imported from Persia', hence the Chinese name shuijing, 'the brilliance of water'. It was popular with the literati who associated clear crystal with 'plain beauty' and had various scholars' objects made of this material, especially during the Qianlong period. Clear rock crystal is frequently found, but it is extremely rare to find raw material of this exquisite pale green colour, which would have been a great luxury at that time.

The scholarly elite would enjoy pausing while writing or painting, and at such times an opulent desk ornament such as the current vessel, teeming with luxuriant imagery of swirling clouds and mountain peaks, would remind them of the natural world and the harmony associated with the Daoist view of the universe. The sumptuous sprigs of lingzhi would evoke the fabled island of Peng Lai. The imagery of the phoenix, paired with a dragon, is emblematic of the empress and emperor, suggesting an Imperial provenance.  

For a rock crystal vase carved in relief with a dragon, see the example donated by Heber Bishop to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1902, acc. no. 02.18.820. See also a smoky crystal vase and cover in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, carved with dragons and flowering trees, illustrated in Soame Jenyns, Chinese Art III, Fribourg, 1981, p. 214, pl. 189. For jade vases with related iconography, see a large pale green jade vase in the Palace Museum, Beijing, similarly worked with a long chilong depicted clambering over the rim of the vessel, see Zhongguo yuqi quanji [Complete series on Chinese jades]. vol. 6, Hebei, 1991, pl. 148, and an 18th century yellow jade zun-form vase worked in relief with a dragon and phoenix, sold in these rooms, 11th April 2008, lot 3096.