| JADE AND HARDSTONE |
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| 86 A very fine, imperial, inscribed jade table screen Qianlong period Height: 9 7/8 in, 25.1 cm worked on one side with a scene of three fishermen, two in a boat on a fast-flowing river, one drawing in a net and the other holding the tiller, and the third on the bank. There are buildings either side of the river and various trees growing from the rocky banks, with steep cliffs and clouds above, and an inscribed imperial poem, reading: A fishing village at sunset / The ruddered boats moor gracefully under the green poplars / The setting sun is visible through nets fluttering in the breeze / Who knows a place where its rays are multiplied as my eyes take on the darkening dusk? The other side is worked with two scholars and an attendant crossing a bridge over a river in a similar rocky landscape with sparsely scattered trees and a single pavilion in the distance. A second imperial poem is inscribed above, reading: Spring floods filling the Mao marshes / Peaks emerge from strange clouds while clouds resemble peaks / It is as though the clouds and peaks are having a competition / With a flash of exhilaration I am reminded of official language / There’s something definitely there but then again there’s not! The stone is a fine pale celadon-green tone with russet markings cleverly used within the design. With a pierced, carved wood stand.
For related screens, see Ip, Chinese Jade Carving, no. 236, pp. 264–5; Rawson, Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, no. 29:17, pp. 404–06; Luzzato-Bilitz, Antique Jade, no. 55, p. 117, inthe collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum; and Chang, The Refined Taste of the Emperor: Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Ch’ing Court, no. 65, pp. 192–3, and no. 67, pp. 196–7. |
