AN EXCEPTIONAL AND RARE WHITE JADE TEAPOT AND COVER QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG PERIOD |

exquisitely worked from a lustrous and even white stone with a compressed globular body resting on a short splayed galleried foot, the spout issuing from one side across a handle with everted scrolling ends, the domed cover centred with a short waisted stem below a circular finial skilfully rendered in openwork with a coiled dragon, wood stand

White jade imperial teapots are very rare and the present teapot is remarkable for the superb quality of its material and craftsmanship. The spectacular translucency and smooth polish of the vessel suggest that it was made in the latter part of the Qianlong reign, when white jade boulders of exceptional quality became more available in larger quantities after the Western campaigns, which subjugated the Dzungars and secured control over the jade-rich territories of Khotan and Yarkand, modern-day Xinjiang. The current teapot, worked with a compressed globular body accentuated with a luminous sheen, is one of the finest examples produced in the imperial workshops of the Qianlong Emperor. Through the design of the seemingly plain and undecorated body, the craftsman was able to demonstrate the outstanding purity of the stone to its full extent.

Unmarked vessels with a rounded body are not uncommon but jade teapots from the Qianlong reign are widely varied in form and design and no related example of a cover decorated in openwork with a 'dragon' finial appears to be recorded. See a similar white jade teapot, well worked with a rounded body and decorated on one side with a double-strapped handle with similar everted scrolling ends, and surmounted by a cover with a lobed finial, sold in these rooms, 31st October 2004, lot 233. Another similarly unmarked teapot, superbly worked with a lobed body and a spout fashioned in the form of a ram's head, was sold in these rooms, 3rd October 2017, lot 3613.