Coco Li
Cataloguer / Sale Coordinator, Chinese Works of Art
Lot 41
AN ELEGANT FIVE-PIECE WHITE AND SPINACH JADE ALTAR SET Circa 1900
14 December 2023, 17:00 EST
New YorkSold for US$40,960 inc. premium
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Dessa Goddard
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Michael Hughes
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I-Hsuan Chen
Senior Specialist
AN ELEGANT FIVE-PIECE WHITE AND SPINACH JADE ALTAR SET
Circa 1900
Comprising a pair of fang gu vases carved in three sections with a flared square base with vertical flanges separating the leiwen ground under a central bulb-form section and trumpet-form mouth; a pair of pricket candlestands with broad square-shaped basin under a long square shaft and smaller galleried rim, and an elegant censer of fang ding shape, raised on four elaborately carved supports carved with lion-mask heads and claw feet joined to the rectangular body bisected with a vertical flange projecting from a leiwen ground and set off by slender flared handles joined to the shoulder and rim by c-comma brackets, the matching cover set off by a floral-form finial; all vessels in the set overlaid with white jade cut-outs carved as abstract zoomorphic animal figures set off against the brilliant spinach-jade surface.
11 1/2in (29.2cm) high of censer;
11 1/4in (29.5cm) high of prickets;
9 3/4in (24.6cm) high of gu; wood stands (5).
Comprising a pair of fang gu vases carved in three sections with a flared square base with vertical flanges separating the leiwen ground under a central bulb-form section and trumpet-form mouth; a pair of pricket candlestands with broad square-shaped basin under a long square shaft and smaller galleried rim, and an elegant censer of fang ding shape, raised on four elaborately carved supports carved with lion-mask heads and claw feet joined to the rectangular body bisected with a vertical flange projecting from a leiwen ground and set off by slender flared handles joined to the shoulder and rim by c-comma brackets, the matching cover set off by a floral-form finial; all vessels in the set overlaid with white jade cut-outs carved as abstract zoomorphic animal figures set off against the brilliant spinach-jade surface.
11 1/2in (29.2cm) high of censer;
11 1/4in (29.5cm) high of prickets;
9 3/4in (24.6cm) high of gu; wood stands (5).
Footnotes
1900年前後 碧玉鑲白玉五供香具一組
Provenance
Christie's New York, 17 September 2010, lot 1168
來源
紐約佳士得拍賣行，2010年9月17日，拍品編號1168
Magnificent sets of archaic bronze vessels were cast and employed for ritual use and burial purposes commencing in the Shang (1500 BC-1050 BC) to the Han dynasty (206 BC- 220AD), employing a variety of vessels including large censers ding, beakers gu, wine vessels jue, food vessels gui, with later forms incorporated in the Western and Eastern Zhou period (1050 BC - 221 BC). See the large set of Late Shang and early Western Zhou ritual bronzes on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (24.72-1-14) formerly in the collection of Duan Fang, said to be unearthed from a tomb in 1901 and acquired by the Museum in 1924.
Altar sets became more standardized in number and type beginning in the late 17th century, when Chinese porcelain was imported to the West through the East India Company (VOC), introducing new ceramic shapes, often in pairs, to a hungry market. The Delft craftsmen began imitating these shapes, creating groups of three, five or seven pieces for display on a mantel piece, thus the garniture as is commonly known. By the 18th century, sets based upon archaic bronze shapes were crafted in the workshops of Guangzhou and Beijing in porcelain and cloisonne enamel for both export and imperial use. For one of the earliest imperial porcelain examples of a five-piece garniture or altar set (wugong), see the famous five-piece fahua set, Jiajing mark and period, at the Guimet Museum, accession G3848, n1-5. A five-piece altar set dated to the Qianlong period is published in Evelyn Rawski and Jessica Rawson, China: The Three Emperors (1662-1795), London: Royal Academy of Art, 12 November 2005 - 17 April 2006, p. 139, No. 44. See also See Claudia Brown, Chinese Cloisonne: The Clague Collection, Phoenix, 1980, pl 41, p. 96 date to the Qianlong period. See Through the Prism of the Past: Antiquarian trends in Chinese Art of the 16th to 18th Century, Taipei 2003, no. 11-1, p. 90 and in cloisonne ibid., 11-47, p. 179. The present embellished jade set is a further reflection of this homage to archaism.
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