A Rare White Jade Bi Disc And Album Iricised. Mark And Period of Qianlong. Photo Sotheby's

the translucent stone of a milky white tone, meticulously carved in openwork, with four characters Chang yi zisun ('To Benefit Future Generations Forever'), surrounded by two pairs of stylised phoenix, the terminal above deftly carved with a pair of confronting phoenix beneath a scrolling cloud, the narrow sides incised with a Qianlong nianzhi mark and the characters yang zi erbai hao ('Number 200 of Yang'), the jade mounted in an album with a small ink painting of orchid on the opposite page, inscribed Youxiang ('Delicate Fragrance'), impressed with seals Xiesheng ('Life Drawing') and Qiwu ('To Equalise Things'), the frontispiece bearing a four-character inscription Zhenfu zhaocai ('Auspicious Edict, Beautiful Jade'), impressed with a seal Taishang Huangdi ('Emperor Emeritus'), together with a wood front cover carved with the characters Zhenfu zhaocai filled-in with ground lapis lazuli; jade 13.5 cm., 5 3/8 in.; album 15.6 by 9.5 cm., 6 1/8 by 3 3/4 in. Estimate 3,000,000—4,000,000 HKD. Lot Sold 11,300,000 HKD (1,448,718 USD) to an Asian Private

PROVENANCE: Collection of L. de Luca, 1900 (according to inscription).

NOTE: The Qianlong emperor's penchant for the antique saw a great number of copies of ancient jades and archaistic carvings to be produced during his reign. This expertly carved piece is based on the bi, an ancient ritual disc that according to Han ritual texts and commentaries symbolised Heaven. Although this piece was not intended to serve any ritual purpose, under the Qianlong emperor jade discs continued to be associated with Heaven and were seen as a symbol of power and the Emperor's appreciation of antiquity. A closely related example mounted in a very similar album, but illustrating a leafy bamboo branch, in the Qing Court collection and still in Beijing, is published in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Jadeware (III), Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 127; another, with the album illustrating a marigold, was sold in these rooms, 27^th April 2003, lot 3, and was included in the exhibition A Romance with Jade from the De An Tang Collection, Palace Museum, Beijing, 2004, cat. no. 21; and a third example, but lacking the album, in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, is included in James C.S. Lin, The Immortal Stone. Chinese Jades from the Neolithic Period to the Twentieth Century, Cambridge, 2009, pl. 77a and b.

For the prototype of this bi, see a large disc decorated with a pair of dragons in ornate openwork excavated in the tomb of Liu Sheng (d. 113BC) at Mancheng, Hebei province, illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji yuqi, vol. 9, Beijing, 1991, pl. 164. See also another bi attributed to the Eastern Han dynasty (AD25-220) similarly carved with chilong flanking the characters chang le ('happiness') in openwork carving above a disc, in the Qing Court collection and still in Beijing, included in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Jadeware (I), Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 217; together with a jade bi carved with a dragon and two phoenixes, attributed to the Western Han dynasty (206BC-AD9), pl. 215.

Sotheby's. Vestiges from China's Imperial History, 08 Apr 11, Hong Kong www.sothebys.com