21 x 18 x 14 cm. (8 1/4 x 7 1/8 2 5/8 in.)

The present ‘dragon’ washer belongs to a group of large jade boulders, often retaining their original form, powerfully carved in high relief depicting five or nine vivid dragons weaving in and out of clouds beside rocks rising from foaming waves. The imagery is rich with auspicious symbolism alluding to Imperial power. The five dragons represent the Emperor in the middle of the four cardinal points, the entire expanse of the world with the Emperor’s authority at the centre. The number five is also associated with the five belssings, wealth, health, age, virtue and peaceful death.
The wonderfully skillful inclusion of the different brown and beige colourations of the skin of the jade, cleverly incorporated into the design, is testament to the skill of the lapidary artist. The earliest known example of this type of vessel is the Dushan dayuhai, a massive 3500 kg. jade wine basin carved with mythical creatures emerging from waves thought to have been commissioned by Kublai Khan during the Yuan dynasty who placed it on an island in Beihai lake. The vessel is thought to have been lost with the transition to the Ming dynasty until it was rediscovered by the Qianlong Emperor. The Emperor composed a number of poems on the discovery and it is conceivable that he also commissioned jade washers to commemorate the Yuan washer.
A number of related large jade washers are recorded in important private and institutional collections including an example from the Bishop Collection in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, illustrated in "Chinese Decorative Arts" The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 55, no. 1, Summer, 1997, p. 30 and a jade ‘dragon’ brush washer in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Zhongguo Yuqi Quanji, Hebei, p. 226, no. 333. Compare, also, with an important white and russet jade example from the Edward Farmer and Alan and Simone Hartman collections sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 27 November 2007, lot 1504; and a large celadon jade example from the collection of the 3rd Baron Alington of Crichel sold at Woolley and Wallis, Salisbury, 17th November 2010, lot 343. A mottled grey jade example was sold at Sotheby’s New York, 5th October 2015, lot 3704 and a large spinach-jade washer was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 29 May 2007. The present washer and the above examples all share dynamic deep relief carving depicting the dragons among clouds and turbulent waves emerging from a swirling whirlpool forming the base.

Price estimate:
HKD: 800,000-1,200,000
USD: 103,200-154,800

Auction Result:
HKD: --