A magnificent Imperial white jade circular table screen


QianlongOf circular form, dexterously carved on one side with a mountainous landscape scene depicting an Immortal holding a peach, facing his attendant carrying two fish, both standing on a ledge above a flowing stream, below a pavilion partially hidden in the mountains, opposite a lofty pine tree above a wutong tree, with a crane in flight carrying a musical chime stone below cloud scrolls, the reverse finely polished and left uncarved to display the attractive stone of even white tone, the wood stand carved in openwork with two conjoined archaistic phoenix on a rectangular lotus base. The screen 21cm (8 1/3in) diam. (2).
|清乾隆 御製白玉雕松鶴祝壽圖圓硯屏Provenance:Puwei (1880–1936), Prince Kung (Gong) of the First RankYamanaka & Co. Ltd., New YorkAmerican Art Galleries, New York, The Remarkable Collection of the Imperial Prince Kung of China: A Wonderful Treasury of Celestial Art 27 February 1913, lot 120Nagatani, ChicagoMilwaukee Art MuseumChristie's New York, 22 March 1999, lot 30An Asian private collectionPublished and Illustrated:American Art Galleries, New York, The Remarkable Collection of the Imperial Prince Kung of China: A Wonderful Treasury of Celestial Art 27 February 1913, lot 120來源：恭賢親王溥偉(1880-1936)舊藏山中商會，紐約美國藝術協會，紐約，1913年2月27日，拍品120Nagatani，芝加哥美國密爾沃基美術博物館紐約佳士得，1999年3月22日，拍品30亞洲私人收藏出版及著錄：美國藝術協會，《恭親王藏品圖集》，紐約，1913年2月27日，拍品120。Prince Kung (or Gong) of the First Rank, was the grandson of Yixin, the first Prince Kung, who was the sixth son of the Daoguang emperor. He was to be the last Prince Kung. The turbulent times following the demise of the Qing dynasty saw Puwei, Prince Kung, seeking refuge with the German protectorate and in dire economic straits. He therefore offered his mansion and properties as a mortgage to the Catholic Benedictine Order. However, it was to Yamanaka Sadajiro, who opened a store in New York's West 27th Street near Broadway, that Puwei sold the bulk of the Prince Kung Mansion Collection. Yamanaka then proceeded to offer the collection for sale in 1913 at the American Art Association.恭賢親王溥偉，號錫晉齋主，滿洲愛新覺羅氏，是第一代恭親王奕訢嫡孫，歷任官房大臣、正紅旗滿洲都統、禁菸事務大臣等要職。宣統皇帝讓位中華民國成立之後，溥偉避居德國租借地青島的同時，將恭王府抵押給天主教本篤會，並將恭王府內藏品一次性售賣給了日裔紐約骨董商山中定次郎。這批藏品於1913年由山中商會在位於紐約的美國藝術協會全部公開拍賣，此硯屏便是當時拍品之一。Such superb white jade stone, particularly of such impressive size, first became available following the Qianlong emperor's conquest of the Dzungar Khanate between 1755 and 1759, where much of the jade was sourced. The natural translucency of the carefully chosen jade stone, finely polished to a soft, glossy sheen, is further enhanced by the master carver's intentional contrast between the skillfully carved multi-layered landscape to one side, and the lustrous uncarved surface to the other side, reveling in the exceptional quality of the jade stone. The unusual thickness of the jade disc, measuring approximately 1cm deep, still allows the light to pass through the stone enhancing the varying depths of the carved pictorial scene whilst remaining unaffected by the uncarved reverse, thereby creating a miniature world for the viewer to contemplate and 'escape' to from the toils of daily life.The Qianlong emperor advocated that jade mountains and carved panels should be inspired by paintings of past masters. It is recorded that a number of classical paintings from the emperor's own collection was to be replicated in jade, such as the well-known painting Travelers in the Mountain, by Guan Tong, active during the Five Dynasties (907-960 AD). In one of the emperor's poems, as discussed in an essay by Yang Boda, Arts of Asia, 'Jade: Emperor Ch'ien Lung's Collection in the Palace Museum, Peking', March-April 1992, the emperor noted in reference to a jade panel:'This piece of precious jade slab is from Khotan. It is unsuitable for making vessels such as the dragon hu and animal lei. In order to fully utilise it, it is to be carved into a panel with the scene of "A Riverside City on a Spring Morning". Imagination is exerted to turn the natural undulation or ruggedness into an appropriate landscape... It takes ten days to carve a tiny bit of water and five days to shape a piece of rock. The crafting is indeed very time-consuming.'The present lot is mounted on an elaborate wood stand and would have been displayed in one of the halls in the Prince Kung Mansion in Beijing.Compare with a similarly carved white jade circular screen, Qianlong mark and period, with the front side depicting three Immortals and the reverse also left uncarved, illustrated in the Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum: Jade 8 Qing Dynasty, Beijing, 2011, p.180, no.142. See also another white jade circular screen, Qianlong, illustrated in Christie's 20 Years in Hong Kong, 2006, p.370, which was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1 December 2010, lot 3006. A further white jade circular screen, was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8 October 2013, lot 3042.插屏白玉製成，玉質溫潤，拋光細膩，色澤純淨。屏圓身，正面浮雕山石亭台及人物仙境，構圖巧妙。蒼松梧桐下，一老者手持仙桃作拜壽狀，旁邊一侍童手持雙魚，腳下溪水潺潺，遠處亭台隱於山石中，天空一側，一仙鶴和口銜一磬，盤旋於祥雲中，靈動自然。背面刻意留白，精心打磨，越顯玉料之晶瑩光潔，為玉雕插屏中大雅之作。乾隆朝中期之前，清宮缺乏上好玉料，諸如此類玉質細膩、色澤溫潤之插屏寥寥可數，因此尤為珍貴。玉匠在製作此類插屏時，必須慎選純淨細膩玉料以作屏面，以強化其紋飾雕刻之層次感。此件插屏，玉質溫潤，取料難得，工匠一面以嫻熟技法雕出多層紋飾，而另一面則刻意留白，並嚴謹小心進行打磨拋光，使得光線穿透其近一釐米厚度時，不對正面紋飾產生干擾，可見其匠心。屏如此例，使其觀者，如置身繁囂之外，宛入靜謐之境一般。類硯屏為清代宮廷文房陳設，具有類似繪畫的視覺效果，乾隆帝尤愛此類具有「畫意」的玉器。據記載，他曾命工匠將其御藏古畫，作於玉石之上，如五代山水大家，關仝（907-960）之《關山行旅圖》。詳細論述，見楊伯達，「北京故宮清宮舊藏乾隆玉器」，刊於《Arts of Asia》，1992年3-4月。此件玉屏畫面佈局巧妙，雕工細頸逎婉卻又顯玉石之光瑩，極有可能為恭王府內文房書桌陳設佳器，實為難得。北京故宮博物院藏一件清乾隆青玉三星圖插屏，附碧玉玉座，亦是單面雕刻，見《故宮博物院藏品大系：玉器編8 清》，北京，2011年，頁180，圖版142。另見一例清乾隆白玉雕圓形硯屏，著錄於《香港佳士得20年》，2006年，頁370，後於香港佳士得售出，2010年12月1日，拍品3006；香港蘇富比曾售出一例，亦可資比較，2013年10月8日，拍品3042。