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4. A White Jade 'Persimmon' Washer
18th century
Designed as two persimmons on a gnarled leafy branch, the larger hollowed to form the container, its rim decorated with a bird in flight suspending a ribboned chime in its beak. All the details crisply carved in medium relief, the well polished stone of a pale greenish white tone with some pale flecks. The entire composition a homonym for the rebus dajixiqing: joyful celebration of great auspiciousness.
7 cm. (2 3/4 in.) wide
Provenance: Lady June Horlick Collection
The four small objects for the scholar’s desk are representative of the so-called ‘Chinese taste’ in jades. Each design has its roots in 18th century court paintings which achieved an almost perfect balance between naturalism and idealisation, a defining characteristic of most 18th century imperial decorative art. These pieces illustrate how the lapidary could use jade to translate ink-wash pictures into three dimensional forms.
In the two boxes, the design is rendered in shallowest relief, the fine incisions corresponding to the fine black ink outline in baimiao paintings. The cut out surface is then simply extended straight downwards to create the box form. In the Persimmon washer, the hollowed fruit is realistically rendered, but the branches and leaves are carved with sharp angles resembling brush strokes. They are then deeply undercut, so that when light passes through them they shade from light to dark, to give the illusion of graduating ink wash. In the lingzhi washer, a combination both of the techniques above is used. While the front is flat and two dimensional, with the details of the bats lightly incised, the reverse is sculpted with bold sweeping lines. Particularly impressive is the way in which the tension of the composition is maintained as the piece is rotated.
These small pieces show the sophistication of the Chinese lapidary during the 18th century, and their complete mastery of the medium.
Next: (5) An Exquisite Pair of White Jade Wine Cups
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