An extremely rare imperial white jade ewer and cover, Qianlong incised Yuyong six-character mark and of the period (1736-1795)

24 mars 2020

An extremely rare imperial white jade ewer and cover, Qianlong incised Yuyong six-character mark and of the period (1736-1795)

Lot 3598. An extremely rare imperial white jade ewer and cover, Qianlong incised Yuyong six-character mark and of the period (1736-1795); 7 3/8 in. (18.7 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 800,000 - HKD 1,200,000. Price Realized HKD 7,820,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2011.

An elegant elongated pear form resting on a waisted foot, the gently sloping neck descending to a rounded body, bridged on one side by a square-section scroll handle and on the other by a conforming spout, carved in high relief with two scaly dragons, their contorted sinuous bodies coiling around the spout and handle, the domed cover surmounted by a third smaller coiled dragon, the Qianlong reign mark incised to the base with an additional incised Jiaqing Yuyong six-character mark in a line above the foot, the stone of an even white tone with areas of opaque inclusions.

Provenance: Sir Ernest Joseph Cassel (1852-1921)
Lady Delamere.

Sir Ernest Joseph Cassel GCB GCMG GCVO PC (1852-1921), a German Jew, who arrived penniless in Liverpool, England, in 1869, quickly rose within the banking industry to become one of the wealthiest men in England of his day. Cassel became a close friend of King Edward VII, prime minister Herbert Asquith and Winston Churchill. He was a generous philanthropist whose benefactions included large sums of money for education, hospitals and the British Red Cross. He also built and endowed an Anglo-German Institute in 1911 in memory of King Edward VII.

Cassel formed an extensive art collection and also had many beautiful houses. After the early death of his wife Annette, his widowed sister helped him bring up his daughter. His only child, Maude Cassel (1879-1911) also died young. He doted on the two granddaughters she left him, especially the eldest, Edwina, who went on to marry Lord Mountbatten. His only child having predeceased him, the art collection was inherited by Cassel's two granddaughters: Lady Delamere and her sister Edwina Mountbatten. The following lots (nos. 3594-3601) were inherited by Lady Delamere and bequeathed to her sons.

Exhibited: The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, England, 1961-1998.

Note: A very similar ewer of the same size and proportions, also bearing a Qianlong four-character mark but with the dragons forming the handle and spout, rather than coiling around them, was included in the Spink & Son exhibition, The Minor Arts of China, London, 1985n no. 213 and later illustrated in Jade (ed. Roger Keverne), London, 1991, p. 182, fig. 135. The representation of the dragon finial also appears to be nearly identical on both examples.

Compare the depiction of the coiled dragons with a similar treatment of a dragon around the handle of a waterpot in the Seattle Art Museum, illustrated by J. Watt, Chinese Jades from the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, 1989, p. 98, no. 77.

The presence of both a Qianlong and a Jiaqing reign mark on the ewer suggests that it is a rare example of a piece that was used in the Imperial court during both reign periods.