the tapering sides rising from a short spreading foot, with articulated handles in the form of 'climbing' chilong, each with ruyi clasped in their jaws, the front and reverse panels carved in low relief with a lively four claw dragon writhing above waves among trailing cloud scrolls, the stone of an even white tone; 19.3 cm, 7 5/8  in.  

Notes: Perfectly proportioned and smoothly polished to a lustrous sheen, this bowl has been carved from a fine and luminous white stone. White jade boulders of this exceptional quality became available in larger quantities after the Western campaigns, which subjugated the Dzungars and secured control over the area of Khotan and Yarkand, in present day Xinjiang. Prior to the conquest, jade came in relatively small boulders to the Imperial Workshops and many poems of the Emperor deplore the scarcity of the material. 

A slightly smaller square bowl, the body left undecorated and the handles somewhat less elaborate, from the collection of Sir John Woolf, was included in the exhibition The Woolf Collection of Chinese Jade, Sotheby’s, London, 2013, cat. no. 40, and sold at Christie’s London, 6th June 1988, lot 1. See also a square bowl, in the form of a rice measure (dou), carved on the exterior with figures and on the interior with a dragon, is illustrated in Robert Kleiner, Chinese Jade from the Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, Hong Kong, 1996, pl. 66.

Similar square vessels are also known in smaller sizes; see for example a pair of square cups with rectangular handles sold in our New York rooms, 19th March 2013, lot 42; another cup sold in our New York rooms, 27th February 1981, lot 463; and a third example with a single handle, from the collection of Alice Tully, sold in these rooms, 6th June 1995, lot 68.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Jades from the Thompson-Schwab Collection Londres, 09 nov. 2016, 10:00 AM