A rare large imperially inscribed lapis lazuli boulder, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period | 清乾隆 青金石御製詩五老圖山子

Carvings fashioned from lapis lazuli are very rare. What makes this piece even more exceptional is the massive size of the stone, which appears to be one of the largest examples to have been published. Compare two other large imperially inscribed carvings but of smaller size than the present lot, both preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing: one of deep blue colour, incised with an imperial poem on the Nine Elders of Huichang and carved with a mountainous landscape scene; the other slightly darker in colour than the present piece, rendering a palace and inscribed with two verses composed by the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1736-95) while he was travelling in Wansong Shan.

The present boulder is completed by a poem written in 1766 by the Emperor, included in Qing Gaozong yuzhi shiwen quanji / Anthology of Imperial Qianlong Poems and Texts, Yuzhi shi san ji (Imperial poetry, vol. 3), scroll 57, p. 18. Entitled Ti Hetian yu wulao tu ('On the Khotan jade depicting the Five Elders'), the poem praises not only the carving of the figures and the mountains, but also a desirable carefree lifestyle, and may be translated as follows:

The mountain peaks stand in a row like those of Mount Lu;

The human figures present themselves vividly as the five old men of Suiyang.

The merry mood is as pure as the streams;

The striking forms are as aged as the pines.

In the bustle of the mundane world the old men’s traces are difficult to find;

Their place of seclusion is appropriate for free roaming.

Wishing idly to wander into this riverside scene,

I am disappointed to be staring into an ocean.

The same verses can be found on a white jade brush pot, sold in these rooms, 24th February 1970, lot 130 and again in our Hong Kong rooms, 8th October 2019, lot 118. Single Qianlong poems were sometimes used on multiple pieces; see a lapis lazuli luohan boulder preserved in the National Palace Museum, Taipei (accession no. gu-za-753), incised with the same inscription as the one carved on a celadon jade luohan boulder, formerly in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, recently sold in our New York rooms, 10th September 2019, lot 17.