An archaistic pale celadon jade 'Twelve symbols' tablet, Qing dynasty, 19th century. Estimate 40,000 — 60,000 USD. Price Realized $150,000 . Photo Sotheby's

in the form of a gui scepter combined with a bi disc issuing from tumultuous waves and rocks below, the bicarved on one side around the central aperture with the grain pattern of small spiral bosses, the reverse with ruyi scrolls, the gui carved with the Twelve Symbols in pairs of two, and a scaly dragon chasing a 'flaming pearl' entwined around the top of the blade, the stone of a pale greenish white with areas of russet, wood stand (2) - Height 9 1/4  in., 23.5 cm

Provenance: Sotheby's New York, 25th September 1975, lot 96. 

Notes: The twelve symbols include the sun, moon, rock, constellations, the fu symbol, an ax, small dragon, pheasant, sacrificial vessels, water weeds, flames and grains. These symbols can also be found on robes reserved for the emperor’s own use.

See a closely related tablet also with the Twelve Symbols in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Jadeware (III), Hong Kong, 1995, p. 160., no. 129; and another tablet in the British Museum and illustrated in Jessica Rawson, Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, p. 92, fig. 88.

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, New York, 15 sept. 2015