Juliette Hammer
Sale Coordinator
Lot 145Y
A LARGE PALE GREEN JADE 'CHRYSANTHEMUM' BRUSH WASHER 18th century
15 May 2025, 11:30 BST
London, New Bond Street£8,000 - £12,000
Ask about this lot
Chen Xie
Specialist
Edward Luper
Specialist, Chinese Works of Art
Lazarus Halstead
Head of Chinese and Asian Art, London
A LARGE PALE GREEN JADE 'CHRYSANTHEMUM' BRUSH WASHER
18th century
Crisply carved and hollowed as a large chrysanthemum head with fluted petals and curved tips, the interior with a large disc floret, the exterior with further gnarled branches issuing undulating leaves and further blossoming chrysanthemums carved and pierced in high relief, a dragonfly perched on the edge and further insects underneath, elaborately carved wood stand. 21.6cm (8 1/2in) wide. (2).
Crisply carved and hollowed as a large chrysanthemum head with fluted petals and curved tips, the interior with a large disc floret, the exterior with further gnarled branches issuing undulating leaves and further blossoming chrysanthemums carved and pierced in high relief, a dragonfly perched on the edge and further insects underneath, elaborately carved wood stand. 21.6cm (8 1/2in) wide. (2).
Footnotes
Please note this Lot is to be sold at No Reserve. 本拍品不設底價
十八世紀 青玉菊花紋洗
The chrysanthemum has several layers of literary and seasonal symbolism. The chrysanthemum, famously associated with the poet Tao Yuanming (365–427), signified reclusion, integrity, and a life devoted to higher ideals: qualities that many scholar-officials aspired to. Tao Yuanming's poetry often depicted his retreat from Court life to cultivate chrysanthemums in rustic seclusion, making the flower a powerful emblem of scholarly purity and resistance to corruption. Additionally, chrysanthemums were central to the Double Ninth Festival (Chongyang), a time for climbing heights, drinking chrysanthemum wine, and reflecting on the passage of time. For a scholar gazing upon a jade chrysanthemum washer on their desk, the object would not only have been a tool for their literary craft but also a quiet reminder of poetic tradition and seasonal rhythms.
See an earlier jade chrysanthemum brush washer, Ming dynasty, in the Palace Museum, Taipei (acc.no.故玉000515N000000000). Jade chrysanthemum brush washers were more commonly carved in the Mughal style during the Qianlong period. See one for example, also in the Palace Museum, Taipei (故玉003807N000000000). It is more common to see jade brush washers in the form of mallow flowers, lotus or prunus. see for example, a pale green jade 'prunus' brush washer, 18th century, which was sold at Bonhams London, 7 June 2021, lot 616.