A rare imperial inscribed jade book. Dated Sunzi Wuzi cyclical year (1648). photo courtesy Sotheby's

comprising ten thick jade plaques of rectangular form, the Khotan green jade of greyish olive-green tone, the cover and back plates each boldly incised and gilt with a pair of ascending and descending dragons in pursuit of a flaming pearl between ruyi-shaped clouds, a further four plates neatly incised and gilt with four columns of Chinese characters written in xingshu, beginning with the date 'Shunzhi wu nian wuzi', and another four tablets incised and gilt with four columns of Manchu script, all in a fitted wood box inscribed with the characters guibi tongzheng (12); each height 11 1/4 in., 28.5 cm; width 5 in., 12.7 cm. Estimate 250,000—300,000 USD. Lot Sold 386,500 USD

PROVENANCE: Christie's London, 12th December 1988, lot 241.

EXHIBITED: Christie's New York, 13 - 16 March, 2001.
Chinese Jades from the Hartman Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, August 2003-December 2004.

LITERATURE AND REFERENCES: Robert Kleiner, Chinese Jades from the Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, Hong Kong, 1996, pp. 200-201, no. 153.

NOTE: The Chinese and Manchu text may be translated as follows:

'On the eleventh month of the eighth day, in the fifth year of the Shunzhi reign, I, Fulin (personal name of the Emperor), Emperor by right of succession to the throne, as a dutiful great-great-grandson, reverently prostrate myself before the spirit of my great-great-Grandmother, and respectfully make the following announcement: that at the present all under Heaven is united and the Great Patrimony firmly established is due to our Grandmother diligently assisting our Brilliant Ancestor Emperor Benignant in practising good and consolidating the Divine Inheritance. Patterning our conduct after laws and the codes of the ancients, concentrating to the utmost in our filial thoughts, we reverently present to Her on high the precious tablet and seal conferring upon her the posthumous title of Empress Benignant so that Her exalted value may be transmitted down unto ten thousand generations.'

According to court regulations, a gold or jade book was presented to a newly created empress, empress dowager or grand empress dowager when she was honored with a laudatory title. The present jade book documents that the posthumous title of Empress Benignant was bestowed on Emperor Shunzhi's great-great grandmother.

Very few jade books survive. A dark grey jade book of the same size dated by inscription to the same year as the present piece, and bearing a similar inscription, also comprising eight inscribed plaques and two dragon covers, from the Qing Court collection, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Jadeware (III), Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 3.

Sotheby's. Fine Ceramics and works of Art. 15 Sept 2010. New York www.sothebys.com