904 A FINE ‘SPINACH’ JADE TABLE SCREEN, the panel finely carved with a reclining scholar on a raft beside a rocky outcrop with clouds beyond, Qianlong, the wood frame and stand of classical form decorated each side with a carved ruyi band and scrollwork, the jade panel 12½" x 15¼", the overall height including the stand 22¼".
The reclining figure is probably the Han Dynasty explorer Zhang Qian, as evidenced by a 14th century inscribed silver cup by Zhu Bishan illustrated in Little ‘Realm of the Immortals:Daoism in the Arts of China, 1988, no.19, pp 46-7’.
A jade brush pot from the Summer Palace Beijing decorated with a very similar scene is illustrated in Ashton and Gray, Chinese Art, 1953, no. 137, pp.372-3. Also, a comparable pair of table screens from the Palace of the Culture of the Mind in the Forbidden City is illustrated in Juliano ‘Treasures of China’, 1981, p.56.
Provenance: Apparently purchased from Sparks in the 1930s by a European diplomat and acquired by the vendor from his Estate.
£40,000-60,000
106