A PALE GREEN AND RUSSET JADE 'TORTOISE AND LOTUS LEAF' BRUSH WASHER

Ming Dynasty

Footnotes

明 青玉龜游荷葉洗

Turtles, with their longevity, have long been believed in China to have magical powers to communicate with the unknown. This is attested to by the ancient practice of using tortoiseshell for divination in the Shang dynasty. The Daoist deity Xuanwu, linked to the north and the colour black during the Han dynasty, also took the form of a turtle held in the coils of a snake. Furthermore, the ancient Book of Songs referred to a magical three-hundred-year-old turtle swimming among lotus leaves, a manifestation of the emperor's benevolence. See an earlier prototype of a jade lotus brush washer with a turtle, Song/Yuan dynasty, illustrated in Jade: From Emperors to Art Deco, Paris, 2016, pp.100-101, no.77. See also two green jade 'tortoise and lotus leaf' pendants in the Beijing Capital Museum, ilustrated in Yang Boda, ed., Zhongguo yuqi quanji, vol.2, Shijiazhuang, 2005, pls.148-149.

青玉，玉質瑩潤，帶褐黃瑕沁斑。洗雕為一片荷葉，一隻烏龜伏於葉心，外壁雙陰線刻葉脈，背面鏤雕枝葉相連茨菇。類似題材玉雕水洗，見臺北故宮博物院藏一件宋至元龜游荷葉洗，著錄於《Jade: From Emperors to Art Deco》，巴黎，2016年，頁100-101，圖版77。北京首都博物館亦藏兩件青玉龜游荷葉佩可資參考，見《中國玉器全集，中》，石家莊，2005年，圖版148-149。