Lot 3714. A finely carved inscribed archaistic white jade 'yi zisun' plaque, mark and period of Qianlong  (1736-1795), 10.5 cm, 4 1/8  in. Estimate 400,000 — 600,000 HKD. Lot sold 2,125,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's.  

the lustrous white stone finely reticulated as a disc enclosing a pair of dragons with contorted bodies flanking a ring dividing the three characters of the phrase, yi zisun ('to benefit our sons and grandsons'), below a figure seated on the back of an ibex in the midst of flowing, asymmetrical scrolls, the thin sides incised with a four-character reign mark on one side and an eight-character inscription on the other reading shenzi yibaisishiqi hao ('number 147, character shen'), the semi-translucent stone of even white colour

Note: This finely carved white jade plaque is part of a small but distinct group of white jade plaques finely incised with Qianlong nianzhi on the edge of the disc and on the other with a number in clerical script according to the characters in the text Qian zi wen ('Thousand characters Essay'), see James C. S. Lin, The Immortal Stone. Chinese Jades from the Neolithic to the Twentieth Century, Cambridge, 2009, pp. 84-87. The design of the disc itself closely follow a Han dynasty prototype illustrated by two Western Han dynasty openwork plaques of similar shape from the Qing court collection illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, vol. 40, Jadewares (I), Hong Kong, 1995, p. 257, nos 215 and 216.

Several plaques of similar size and slightly varying designs but incorporating the characters yi zisun ('to benefit our sons and grandsons') in seal script style are known, most of them in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, others in private collections. 

An excavated plaque, very similar in design to the present plaque, which is dated to the Qianlong period and also incorporates the three characters yi zisun in its design, is in the collection of the National Museum of China, Beijing, and illustrated in Zhongguo Guojia Bowuguan Guancang Wenwu Yanjiu Congshu - yuqi juan/ Studies of the Collections of the National Museum of China: Jade, Shanghai, 2007, p. 340, no. 281. Another, of similar type, in the Qing court collection, which incorporates the four characters, chang yi zisun in the lower section, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 42 - Jadewares (III), Hong Kong, 1995, p. 158, no. 127. A Qianlong period plaque, very similar to this latter plaque, formerly in the Oscar Raphael Collection, and carved with the four characters chang yi zisun and inscribed liang zi yibailiushiba hao ('number 168, character liang'), is illustrated by James C.S. Lin in The Immortal Stone. Chinese Jades from the Neolithic to the Twentieth Century, Cambridge, 2009, p. 84.

Three further plaques of this type have been sold at auction. The first, carved with four characters chang yi zisun, inscribed with the same reign mark in clerical script, on the outer edge, and numbered ren zi qishijiu hao ('number 79, character ren'), was sold at Christie's New York, 16th September 2010, lot 1094. The second, inscribed with the mark zhi zi yibailiushijiu hao ('number 169, character zhi'), was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 27th April 2003, lot 3, and was later included in the exhibition, A Romance with Jade from the De An Tang Collection, Palace Museum, Beijing, 2004, no. 21. The third, with the characters yang zi erbai hao ('number 200, character yang'), from the collection of L. de Luca, was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8th April 2011, lot 2805.