†A RARE CHINESE LAPIS LAZULI MOUNTAIN CARVING

†A RARE CHINESE LAPIS LAZULI MOUNTAIN CARVING
QIANLONG 1736-95

The stone of an intense blue with horizontal striations of iron pyrites; one side carved in relief with two figures standing in mountains before distant pagodas, to their side a crane stands beneath a pine tree. The reverse is carved with a recumbent deer which sits on a ledge above a mountain river flanked by three pine trees, together with a wood stand, 9cm high, 19.5cm wide. (2)

Cf. Chinese Jade Throughout the Ages, an Exhibition organised by the Arts Council of Great Britain, and the Oriental Ceramic Society, 1975, p.20, no.494, for another lapis lazuli mountain carving from the Avery Brundage Collection in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. See also Zhongguo yuqi quanji, vol.6, Shijazhuang, for another lapis lazuli carved boulder in the Palace Museum, Beijing, 1993, pls.262 and 263, and another in the Le Shou Tan, (Hall of Joyful Longevity).

In China, lapis lazuli is known as qing jin shi (blue-gold stone). Although lapis beads have been excavated, which date to the Han dynasty, there are no records of the use of lapis before the Qing dynasty. Cf. Ming Wilson, the Colour of Stones, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, 1997-98, vol.62, p.34. Soame Jenyns notes that the stone was imported from Tibet and that the Emperor officiating at the Temple of Heaven wore a rosary of lapis lazuli beads.

清乾隆 青金石雕松鹿同春圖山子