Lot 760
760
A RARE AND LARGE BLACKISH-GREEN JADE ARCHAISTIC GONG-FORM VESSEL AND COVER
A RARE AND LARGE BLACKISH-GREEN JADE ARCHAISTIC GONG-FORM VESSEL AND COVER
A RARE AND LARGE BLACKISH-GREEN JADE ARCHAISTIC GONG-FORM VESSEL AND COVER
3 More
A RARE AND LARGE BLACKISH-GREEN JADE ARCHAISTIC GONG-FORM VESSEL AND COVER
6 More
CHINESE JADES FROM THE COLLECTION OF T. EUGENE WORRELL
A RARE AND LARGE BLACKISH-GREEN JADE ARCHAISTIC GONG-FORM VESSEL AND COVER

Details
A RARE AND LARGE BLACKISH-GREEN JADE ARCHAISTIC GONG-FORM VESSEL AND COVER
The vessel and cover are carved with zoomorphic features and archaistic motifs, including a bird-like animal protruding from the front of the body and the sides with scrolling serpentine beasts in high relief against a leiwen ground. The handle is surmounted by a humanoid head crowned with a pair of blade-like projections, and is supported on two firmly planted paw feet. The cover is carved at the front with a beast with large curved horns and at the back with a bovine mask with large pointed horns, the sides with two felines against a leiwen ground. The stone is of a deep blackish-green tone with white speckling throughout. The base is inscribed with a Qianlong fanggu mark.
14 3/4 in. (37.5 cm.), softwood stand
Provenance
Sotheby’s New York, 22 March 2000, lot 14.
Literature
H. H. F. Jayne, The Chinese Collections in the Norton Gallery and School of Art, Palm Beach, Florida, 1972, no. 248.
Exhibited
Palm Beach, Florida, Norton Gallery of Art.
St. Petersburg, Florida, St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Art.
‌Charlottesville, Worrell Family Offices Gallery, 2000-2022.

Brought to you by

Rufus Chen (陳嘉安)
Rufus Chen (陳嘉安) Head of Sale, AVP, Specialist
+1 212 636 2180

Lot Essay

The present vessel is based on a celebrated late Shang, 12th-11th century BC bronze gong from the collection of Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer that entered the collection of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC in 1961 (acc. no. F1961.33a-b). (Fig. 1) The elaborate surface decoration of dragons, birds, tigers, elephants, snakes and humans on the current vessel is quite faithful to the Shang prototype, but with a few creative additions, such as the small human head carved in relief on the lower body of the vessel between the two front supports.

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