A fine pale green jade double-sided table screen


18th centuryCrisply carved on both sides in varying levels of relief with a mountainous landscape featuring lingzhi, gnarled pine and wutong trees amidst multi-layered jagged rockwork and waterfall, depicting the immortal Shoulao holding a long staff escorted by two attendants holding a peach and a leafy branch, walking up a steep path, the reverse carved with a crane perching on a pine tree gazing at another crane in flight, all under swirling clouds, the stone of a pale greenish-white tone, wood stand. 17.2cm (6 3/4in) high x 11.1cm (4 1/2in) wide. (2).
|十八世紀 青白玉雕觀瀑圖插屏Provenance:A French private collectionS. Marchant & Son, London, 2001An English private collectionMarchant, LondonExhibited, Published and Illustrated:Marchant, 90th Anniversary Exhibition: Ninety Jades for 90 Years, London, 2015, no.11來源：法國私人舊藏倫敦S. Marchant & Son, 2001英國私人舊藏倫敦Marchant展覽、出版及著錄：Marchant，《玉器九十，90週年特展》，倫敦，2015年，編號11Finely polished and crisply carved in multiple layers of relief and intricate details to suggest a mountainous landscape, the present table screen would have formed part of the paraphernalia on a scholar's desk representing the idealised scholar's retreat. The sage who may be identified as Shoulao, the God of Longevity, is carved on one side, together with the crane, pine trees and lingzhi, conveying wishes for longevity.The Qianlong emperor advocated that jade boulders and carved table screens should carry the spirit of paintings by famous past masters. Subject matters on classical paintings from the emperor's own collection were replicated in jade. Compare with a related pale green jade rectangular screen, Qing dynasty, illustrated in Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum: Jade 8 Qing Dynasty, Beijing, 2010, pl.161. Another pale green jade table screen, Qing dynasty, carved with similar subject matter and inscribed with an imperial poem, is in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated by by Chang Li-tuan, The Refined Taste of the Emperor: Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Ch'ing Court, Taipei, 1997, pp.196-197, no.67. A related white jade circular table screen, Qianlong, carved with similar subject matter, was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 3 June 2015, lot 3155. 青白玉質，青中泛白，一面雕二仙翁立於山巖下品桃論道，不遠處一童子擎一枝佛手正要跨橋，橋下溪水潺潺，溯流而上可見一角亭掩於山石間，再上雕峭壁孤松，間有梧桐林木，一派深谷幽景；另一面正中雕仙鶴立於松頂，高處浮雕一隻翔鶴俯探，餘則高山峻谷，別無他飾，頂部流雲貫穿兩側，將正反兩景相通，可謂神來之筆。玉料厚薄不勻，卻更顯林泉層次。畫意玉雕在乾隆朝大盛，以畫入器本是元代以來文人失去科舉入朝之道後委身匠籍發展出來的，至清早期則無畫不入器，竹木牙雕皆有之。乾隆時期開始有民間匠作的優秀畫意玉雕作品進供宮廷之例，至此官民無分矣。此件插屏畫意十足，應為宮廷風格之延脈，可參考清宮舊藏之近例，如北京故宮博物院藏一件清白玉老子過關插屏，著錄於《故宮博物院藏品大系：玉器編8 清》，北京，2010年，圖161；以及台北故宮藏一件清代玉觀瀑插屏，構圖風格一致，題材大同小異，見《宮廷之雅: 清代仿古及画意玉器特展圖錄》，台北，1997年，編號67，頁196及197。 另可參考一件十八世紀白玉高士訪友圖插屏，風格類似，2019年3月2日售於佳士得紐約，拍品編號1115；佳士得香港2015年6月3日售出一件乾隆白玉觀瀑圖插屏亦資比較，拍品編號3135。