A GREEN JADE AND JICHIMU HATSTAND WITH IMPERIAL POEMS QING DYNASTY |

carved with a domed hat rest with a pair of ferocious dragons in relief on a ground of swirling clouds, circling a central medallion with the characters Qianlong yuyong ('for the imperial use of the Qianlong Emperor'), raised on a slender jichimu shaft incised with two imperial poems picked-out with gold, inscribed with the year dingwei, all supported on a thick circular jade base further decorated with dragons and clouds, the stone of greyish-celadon tone with natural veining

Sotheby's New York, 26th February 1982, lot 472.

The poems may be translated as follows: Two Poems on Bamboo Brazier Lodge
Qing Gaozong yuzhi shiwen quan ji [Anthology of imperial Qianlong poems], Yuzhi shi wu ji [imperial poems, vol. 5], juan 29, p. 25; c. 1787.

Spring water pours out nearby where
    I warm myself at Bamboo Brazier,
Inspired more to write my own rather than
    discuss the awkward and skillful poetry here.
Though poems both ancient and modern
    cover every surface,
For my lines, I'll never run out
    of mountain rocks to inscribe.

Pine breeze gently soughing,
    a quietude utterly unembellished,
And water boiling in the pot, panpipes reponding
    each to each, no loud noise at all.
I'm not inclined to open Changli's
    collected works since
I'd rather not read the injunction
    "avoid hackneyed words."

New Year's Day in the Year Dingwei
Qing Gaozong yuzhi shiwen quan ji [Anthology of imperial Qianlong poems], Yuzhi shi wu ji [imperial poems, vol. 5], juan 27, p. 1; dated 18th February 1787.

At this, the year's start of my five decades
    and more than twenty-four years,
A long reverence ever more profound
    holds while the imperial rescript is read,
And then the happy sounds of firecrackers
    ring out 'til dawn,
When auspicious sunlight resplendent,
    clear, ascends the eastern sky.
Though my springs and autumns, almost eighty in all,
    now have only three years to go,
Day or night, my diligent sense of duty to my people
    prompts me once to bow,
Washing hands and rinsing mouth, burning petal incense,
    with nothing else in mind,
With utmost veneration to pray only
    for peace and prosperity.

See a pair of similar jade hatstands of this design and proportions, but with silver-inlaid inscription and a jade inlaid wood base, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Palace Museum Collection of Elite Carvings, Beijing, 2002, pl. 85, and photographed in situ in the Sanxitang (Room of Three Rarities) in the Forbidden City, published in the exhibition catalogue Imperial China. The Living Past, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1992, p. 107; and another example in the British Museum, London, included in the Oriental Ceramics Society exhibition Chinese Jade throughout the Ages, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1975, cat. no. 463. A similar Qing dynasty hatstand was sold in our New York rooms, 3rd June 1987, lot 292 and again in these rooms, 5th October 2011, lot 2166. For a hatstand of this form but with a plain hardwood shaft and base, see one published in Robert Kleiner, Chinese Jades from the Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, Hong Kong, 1996, pl. 51, and sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 27th November 2007, lot 1536.

For hatstands made in different media, see a cinnabar lacquer example of similar form and subject, in the Qing Court collection and still in Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Lacquer Wares of the Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 2006, pl. 49; and a Beijing enamel example painted with floral scrolls and a shou character, included in Life in the Palace in the Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1985, pl. 183. See also a pair of cloisonné enamel hatstands of slightly differing form sold at Christie's New York, 17th September 2008, lot 197.