SONG-MING DYNASTY (AD 960-1644)

In China’s history, there were two major peaks of significant antiquarian interest, the first during the Northern Song dynasty, 11^th-12^th centuries, and the second during the late Ming-early Qing dynasty, 16^th-18^th centuries. See Jenny So, “Impressions of Times Past: Chinese Jades of the 12^th and 17^th Centuries”, The Woolf Jade Lecture, 16 March 2010, published in Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society 74 (2009-2010), 2011, pp. 75-88. On p. 77, So illustrates two miniature archaistic jade vessels that are dated Southern Song dynasty, a you, fig. 2a, from the tomb of Zhu Xiyan (d. 1201), Xiuning, Anhui province and a hu, from the tomb of Fan Wenhu (d. 1301), Anqing, Anhui province, as well as two vessels dated Ming dynasty or earlier, a hu in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and a hu with cover and swing handle from the tomb of Mu Rui (d. 1609), Nanjing, p. 78, figs. 3 and 4 respectively. So proposes that “these small jade containers were produced as refined objects for private consumption, displayed as precious novelties, elegant symbols of a scholar’s link with a bygone era” and had been “treasured as ‘literati playthings (wenwan)’ to grace a scholar’s studio.”

The present miniature carving of an archaistic rhyton is evidence of this antiquarian interest, as is another similar miniature jade archaistic rhyton (1 7/8 in.) in the collection of the British Museum illustrated by Desmond Gure in “Selected Examples from the Jade Exhibition at Stockholm, 1963; A Comparative Study”, B.M.F.E.A., no. 36, Stockholm, 1964, pp. 117-58, pl. 29, fig. 1, where it is dated to the Tang dynasty. As with the present miniature rhyton, the horned-shaped vessel rises from the jaws of a makara head that forms the base while its S-shaped tail forms the handle.