Buy & Hold: Imperial Cloisonné & Jade
Leading the Asia Week sale series in March 2021, Sotheby's New York offers a diverse array of Asian art spanning 4,000 years of history, a remarkable selection of Imperial jades and cloisonné enamels produced during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Imperial Cloisonné & Jade: Chinese Art from The Brooklyn Museum sale, is sold to support museum collections. This distinguished group of works includes an Imperial Qianlong period white and russet jade brushpot from the Woodward Collection and a group of cloisonné enamels from the world-renowned Samuel P. Avery, Jr. Collection, led by an exceptionally rare ‘bats and clouds’ cloisonné enamel vase. All photos: Sotheby's. Highlights from the collection include:
An exceptional white and russet jade brushpot, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period
Cylindrical form raised on five splayed ruyi-form feet, deftly carved in varying levels of relief with a continuous landscape enclosing a single scholar mounted on horseback preceded by an attendant pushing a wheeled cart surmounted by a songbird, the group traversing a narrow ravine with steep rockfaces rising to either side, the expansive surrounding landscape dotted with tiered pavilions and overhanging pine and wutong trees, to one side the rocks part to reveal a gentle creek crossed by an arched bridge supporting a single egret raised on one leg, large expanses of the surface left uncarved to express the pure white coloration of the stone, occasionally enhanced with patches of russet staining.
A large pair of spinach-green jade 'immortals' parfumiers, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period
Each of tall tubular form, exceptionally carved in openwork and high relief with the immortals holding various auspicious attributes in a vertiginous mountain landscape, the craggy bluffs ascending in diagonal layers creating a sense of verticality and movement, with gnarled wutong and pine trees emerging from rocky outcrops throughout, and fast flowing creeks and waterfalls descending through the rockwork, one outcrop with a tiered pavilion nestled amidst the trees, another with an opening revealing a steep staircase rising to a broad platform centered with a bronze censer atop a four-legged incense stand, all framed within incised keyfret borders.
An exceptionally rare cloisonné enamel 'bats and clouds' vase, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period
The globular body rising from a tall spreading foot to a flaring waisted neck and a gilt galleried rim, the neck set with two mythical beast-form handles, the body intricately enameled with sixteen bats in flight, each meticulously picked out in red, pink, yellow and green enamels, amidst blue ruyi-shaped clouds, encircled above by a band of pendent bats and interlocking C-scrolls at the shoulder, and below by a band of lappets enclosing lotus blooms, repeated and interlocking at the foot, the neck with ten further bats in predominantly blue, pink and red enamels amidst shaded green-enameled foliate scrolls, framed below by a band of upright bats, with further interlocking lappets above encircling the rim, all reserved on a turquoise ground.
An exceptionally rare and large hexagonal cloisonné enamel 'lotus' baluster vase, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period.
The slightly compressed globular body rising from a spreading hexagonal foot to a waisted neck and a galleried rim incised with a keyfret border, each of the faceted sides of the body vibrantly decorated with luscious pink-enameled lotus blooms framed by scrolling green leaves and enclosed within archaistic interlocking scroll work, all above a band of lappets, the foot similarly decorated with mauve lotus flowers, the shoulder encircled by a border ruyi heads, with further lotus and scrollwork to the neck, the rims gilt.
— Christina Spearman