清十八至十九世紀 青白玉福壽如意 |

倫敦佳士得2014年5月13日，編號150

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我們很高興為您提供上述拍品狀況報告。由於敝公司非專業修復人員，在此敦促您向其他專業修復人員索取諮詢，以獲得更詳盡、專業之報告。

準買家應該檢查每款拍品以確認其狀況，蘇富比所作的任何陳述均為專業主觀看法而非事實陳述。準買家應參考有關該拍賣的重要通知（見圖錄）。

雖然本狀況報告或有針對某拍品之討論，但所有拍賣品均根據印於圖錄內之業務規則以拍賣時狀況出售。

This large sceptre is notable for the delicately carved scene of a leafy gnarled pipa (loquat) tree and a spray of wannianqing (Chinese evergreen) issuing from the ground. A sense of naturalism is achieved through the curling leaves and its softly rendered details and the bark of the tree. Jade sceptres decorated with this motif are rare, and only one other example with a closely related scene was sold in these rooms, 4th November 1997, and again at Christie’s New York, 24th March 2004. Compare also a smaller sceptre carved with Chinese evergreen and a prunus tree, sold at Christie’s New York, 26th March 2010, lot 1097. Further sceptres carved in low relief with plants include a larger example, depicting a fruiting peach branch and a bat suspending a ribbon-tied wan emblem on the head, from the collection of Sherry and Lawrence Philips, sold at Christie’s New York, 24th March 2004, lot 53; and another carved with peony flowers and a bat, sold in these rooms, 26th October 2003, lot 42.

Jade boulders of such size were only made available after the Western campaigns of 1759, when the Manchu court gained control over areas of Khotan and Yarkand in present day Xinjiang. Since then, high-quality boulders of magnificent sizes from these regions were presented to the court as tributes and skilfully transformed to aesthetically pleasing works of art by jade artisans working in the Palace Workshops. A talisman presented to bestow good fortune, ruyi (literally meaning ‘as you wish’) sceptre is highly favoured at the Qing court for the auspiciousness embodied within its distinctive form resembling the immortality fungus, lingzhi. Its auspicious connotation is further reinforced through the decoration. Loquats, as harbingers of endless long life, represent abundance of offspring and plentiful blessings, while wannianqing (literally meaning ‘ten thousand year green’), with its evergreen characteristic and clusters of berries, symbolises longevity and fertility.