AN EXCEPTIONAL PAIR OF FINE CHINESE IMPERIAL WHITE JADE JARS AND COVERS

AN EXCEPTIONAL PAIR OF FINE CHINESE IMPERIAL WHITE JADE JARS AND COVERS
QIANLONG 1736-95

Each with a fluted body surmounted by a short wide neck, the rounded bodies tapering towards the feet, the domed covers pierced with scrolling leafy branches and flowers set beneath stylised concave petals, each surmounted by a knop decorated with a central shou medallion surrounded by eight ruyi-heads, the pale stone of a fine white tone and with a lustrous polish, 11.4cm dia. (4)

Provenance: formerly the collection of HM Queen Maria of Yugoslavia (1900-61); and then the Lawrence Collection of jades and hardstone carvings, purchased from Spink & Son prior to 1959.

HM Queen Maria of Yugoslavia (1900-61) was Queen Consort to King Alexander I of Yugoslavia. Her titles included HM Queen Maria of Yugoslavia (1929-45), HM The Queen of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (1922-29), and HRH Princess Maria of Romania (1900-22). Maria was born in Gotha, Thuringia, Germany during the reigns of her maternal grandfather Duke Alfred of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and her great uncle King Carol I of Romania. Her father was Crown Prince Ferdinand of Romania and her mother was Princess Marie, a daughter of Prince Albert, Duke of Edinburgh, who was one of Queen Victoria's sons. She was also the great-granddaughter of Tsar Alexander II of Russia on her mother's side. Maria married King Alexander I of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes on 8th June 1922. Following the assassination of King Alexander in Marseille in 1934, her eldest son became Peter II of Yugoslavia, the last Yugoslav king, and she later became the Queen Mother of Yugoslavia. Maria's citizenship was revoked by the Yugoslav Communist regime in 1947 and she died in exile in London on 22nd June 1961. She is interred at the Royal Burial Ground at Frogmore. Queen Maria of Yugoslavia is known to have been a keen collector of Oriental art, and her collection was dispersed in the 1930s and 1940s.

Cf. C T Loo, Exhibition of Chinese Arts, no.341 for a pair of related bowls; see also The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Jadeware (III), p.82, no.70 for an incense set decorated with comparable ribbed sides.

清乾隆 御製白玉雕如意壽紋花瓣蓋罐 一對

來源：南斯拉夫王后瑪利亞（1900-61）舊藏，勞倫斯珍藏玉石，1959年前購於Spink & Son。