A rare yellow jade 'lingzhi' ruyi sceptre Qing dynasty, 18th century | 清十八世紀黃玉靈芝如意

Auction Closed

April 22, 03:40 AM GMT

Estimate

500,000 - 700,000 HKD

Lot Details

Description

Property from an Old Hong Kong Family Collection

A rare yellow jade 'lingzhi' ruyi sceptre

Qing dynasty, 18th century

香港家族舊藏

清十八世紀黃玉靈芝如意

with the head depicted as three lingzhi blooms, the largest one rendered borne on a gently gnarled branch forming the shaft and issuing further lingzhi blooms, the warm yellow stone with russet patches, original wood stand

31.6 cm

Sotheby's Hong Kong, 19th November 1985, lot 93.

Christie's Hong Kong, 2nd October 1991, lot 1459.

香港蘇富比1985年11月19日，編號93

香港佳士得1991年10月2日，編號1459

This sceptre is distinguished for the highly valued yellow stone from which it has been fashioned. Owing to the rarity of yellow jade, its brownish skin was often worked into a piece, as seen on the present lot, to use to the best advantage of this precious material.

Compare a similar, green example, preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing (accession no. Gu 88937), illustrated in Gugong Bowuyuan cangpin daxi: yuqi bian, vol. 8: Qing / Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum: Jade, vol. 8: Qing Dynasty, Beijing, 2011, pl. 73; a larger, white jade sceptre in the National Palace Museum, Taipei (accession no. Zhong yu 000629 [http://antiquities.npm.gov.tw/Utensils_Page.aspx?ItemId=1215]), included in the Museum’s exhibition Auspicious Ju-I Scepters of China, Taipei, 1995, cat. no. 26; and a yellow ruyi in the form of a lingzhi branch, but carved with archaistic dragons on the head and stem, sold in these rooms, 17th May 1977, lot 312.

A rare yellow jade 'lingzhi' ruyi sceptre Qing dynasty, 18th century | 清十八世紀 黃玉靈芝如意

A rare yellow jade 'lingzhi' ruyi sceptre Qing dynasty, 18th century | 清十八世紀黃玉靈芝如意