An exceptionally large and extremely rare zitan-mounted imperial inscribed archaic jade bi, Eastern Han dynasty, the inscription and the stand dated to the gengyin year of the Qianlong period (corresponding to 1770) | 東漢／清乾隆 御賞嵌「延年」龍鳳紋璧紫檀插屏 《乾隆庚寅孟春月御題》、《乾隆庚寅御題》款 「古香」、「太玉」、「乾」、「隆」印

Property from an Important Asian Collection

An exceptionally large and extremely rare zitan-mounted imperial inscribed archaic jade bi

Eastern Han dynasty, the inscription and the stand dated to the gengyin year of the Qianlong period (corresponding to 1770)

重要亞洲收藏

東漢／清乾隆 御賞嵌「延年」龍鳳紋璧紫檀插屏 《乾隆庚寅孟春月御題》、《乾隆庚寅御題》款

「古香」、「太玉」、「乾」、「隆」印

the exceptionally large jade bi dated to the Eastern Han dynasty, boldly worked on both sides with an overall array of small raised circular studs, encircled by an intricately reticulated band of the characters yan and nian at the top and bottom respectively, surrounded by two writhing dragons and one phoenix, the top with an extended openwork flange of a pair of confronting dragons, the outer edge masterfully inscribed with a long inscription in zhuanshu composed by the Qianlong Emperor and carved to his order, mounted within a carved zitan table screen, the front with a central carved wood boss with the trigram qian, which locks into the back panel to secure the jade, and carved with archaistic patterns to the front, the reverse carved and picked out in gold with an almost identical inscription written in lishu differing only in the date, ending with gengyin yuti (imperial inscription of the gengyin year), the stand and sides carved with further archaistic patterns

disc 23.8 cm

overall h. 30.8 cm

通高 30.8 公分，12⅛英寸

璧 23.8 公分，9⅜英寸