Beschreibung:

AN EXCEPTIONAL AND EXTREMELY RARE DATED ZITAN-MOUNTED ARCHAIC JADE DISC, BI ZHOU DYNASTY THE INSCRIPTION AND THE STAND DATED TO 1775 THIS IS A PREMIUM LOT. CLIENTS WHO WISH TO BID ON PREMIUM LOTS MAY BE REQUESTED BY SOTHEBY'S TO COMPLETE THE PRE-REGISTRATION APPLICATION FORM AND TO DELIVER TO SOTHEBY'S A DEPOSIT OF HK$2,500,000, OR SUCH OTHER HIGHER AMOUNT AS MAY BE DETERMINED BY SOTHEBY'S, AND ANY FINANCIAL REFERENCES, GUARANTEES AND/OR SUCH OTHER SECURITY AS SOTHEBY'S MAY REQUIRE IN ITS ABSOLUTE DISCRETION AS SECURITY FOR THE BID. THE BIDnow ONLINE BIDDING SERVICE IS NOT AVAILABLE FOR PREMIUM LOTS. the smoothly patinated stone of a creamy beige tone naturally streaked with honey-brown inclusions, pierced with a large circular aperture, crisply later incised on one side in clerical script with an imperial poem praising the beauty of the treasured jade, signed Qianlong yiwei chun yuti (‘Imperial inscription in the yiwei year of the Qianlong period’, corresponding to 1775), followed by the seal de jiaqu (‘obtaining refined enjoyment’), mounted within a deftly carved zitan table screen, the front with a carved central wood boss locking into the back panel to secure the jade, detailed with a trigram qian filled in with gilt and flanked by a pair of stylised kui dragons, all enclosed within a key-fret ring, densely carved overall with archaistic scroll motifs, save for a circular medallion on the reverse, picked out in gilt with an almost identical inscription also in clerical script differing only in one character on the date Qianlong yiwei chun yue yuti, ending with the same seal de jiaqu height 22.8 cm., 9 in.