We are pleased to present our third catalogue since the inception of Knapton Rasti Asian Art in the year 2000. This time we have concentrated on jade, a material that both of us have always been drawn to, and a stone that seems to find us.

We are fortunate in being able to offer for sale carvings from three separate private collections that have arrived direct or by a more circuitous route. The first, and most prominent, is a group put together by Mr and Mrs Evans in the late nineteen fifties and early sixties, here in the United Kingdom. Laurence Evans came to prominence after the break up of MCA (the Music Corporation of America) in 1962, by the United States anti-trust law. He helped start London Artists which then took on the former's international stars, such as Sir John Mills, Sir Ralph Richardson, Sir John Gielgud, Sir Laurence Olivier and many more. Eventually they followed him into his own company ICM (International Creative Management). Using the London trade at the time, including Sydney L. Moss, William Clayton and Barling, Mr and Mrs Evans were able to buy several imposing pale celadon and white animal sculptures which have become increasingly difficult to find.

Numbers 35, 36 and 37 are three superb examples, for while the size is large, the skill of the carver has not diminished. The proportions are carefully planned, and there are no weak areas in these animals in the round. Interestingly, the collector has chosen mythical animals, the longma, the Buddist lion and the phoenix. By the eighteenth century the artist, in all areas, had gradually chosen secular above religious subject matter, and the growing market for decorative styles meant the beasts increasingly depicted were horses, buffaloes and domestic animals. But here we have a throwback to the great imaginary fabulous beasts of the Southern Dynasties (265-589 AD) which lined the tomb avenues, the Northern Song animal sculptures on the Spirit path at the tombs of Gongxian, Henan province and later still the Ming Tombs at Xiaoling, Nanjing.

The second group (nos.23,25,26,27and 33) was acquired in Beijing in the period 1932-4 by Sir Adrian Holman, then second secretary in the British Embassy. He subsequently served in embassies around the world, often in the Middle East. His widow, Lady Holman, has kindly allowed us to use this invaluable provenance. They are an eclectic mixture of Moghul style receptacles and white jades. The jar (no.27) is a rare shape in this material (see the Sedgwick jar in the British Museum, Ming Ceramics, plate 6:14, page 168/169) and we would point to the extraordinary doucai pieces made at Jingdezhen in the Chenghua period (1465-87 AD), with the tian mark on the base. The short neck, flattened shoulders and steep sides suggest these pieces as an inspiration for the jade masters of the Qianlong era (1735-96 AD) whose source material for forms was often in previous eras. An alternative tenplate for this jar is a Tibetan Buddhist copper ritual vessel. The two other Moghul inspired bowls are in the more traditional form, of overlapping leaves and pierced floral openwork designs, and in this particular area of the market which is dominated by modern material, these items are the genuine article.

The third collection consists of two works of art, but in some ways they are the highlight of the catalogue. Both (nos.6 and 7) are carved from yellow jade, and both represent perennial Chinese forms, the wine cup and the phoenix. They were formerly in the estate of the late Kenneth Snowman, doyen of Wartskis, the Bond Street jewellers, and world authority on Faberge and gold boxes. The phoenix has many precedents in jade, not least a water dropper, dated to the Northern Wei (386-535 AD), which is illustrated by Desmond Gure, 'Selected Examples from the Jade Exhibition at Stockholm, 1963; a Comparative Study', BMFEA, No. 36 (1964), plate 14. The Stockholm bird has the same crested head facing forwards, the carefully incised wings pulled up the sides and the tail feathers rolled into a stylish curling finish. The stone itself suggests a later date for our bird, while the carving is softer and slightly more suggestive of the naturalistic poses found in Song sculpture. It is worth noting the similarities to staff finials (often birds) which were revived in the Song period in imitation of Han jades. We have listed several references for the eared wine cup (no.6) to show the different colours of stone and varying forms of this peculiarly Chinese vessel down through the dynasties.

Outside of these three collectors we should look north and south west of China, towards the trading routes to India and the deserts. The square jade carving of a recumbent camel (no.8) its head twisted around its body, its beard intermingling with the tail is a real tour-de-force. The camel illustrated in Jessica Rawson's 'Chinese Jade' on page 369 is an obvious reference point. That one has been dated Song or later. We have put ours in the Ming period with its veins of russet suggesting the stone used in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The attention to detail is remarkable, one curl on the animal¹s mane incised in spirals, while the others remain concentric, and the undulations of the humps and muscles are subtlely projected.

The final piece (no.3) worthy of note is the pendant carved as a Hindustani merchant. The rise of the Mongols during the thirteenth century, saw artistic designs and intellectual property exchanged down the trade routes, and it was then that jade carving outside China really flourished, especially under Timurid rulers Amir Timur (1370-1405 AD) (Tamburlane) and Ulugh Beg (1447-49), with the formers tombstone carved from a large jade slab. The question posed is whether our merchant relates to this period or earlier Tang prototypes, when drilled pendants were found in tombs, alongside pottery figures with Western Asiatic features such as this one; a turbaned man is a rare find indeed.

Christopher Knapton
Nader Rasti
November 2003