447.
A CLOISONNÉ ENAMEL HARDSTONES-INLAID WHITE JADE-INSET RUYI SCEPTER
Qing dynasty, Qianlong period
43,5 x 10,5 cm
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 5234.
Ruyi sceptres are originally liturgical instruments of the Buddhist doctrine. However, the sinuous shape of their heads became a very popular decorative motif in all the fields of Chinese visual culture. During the Yongzheng and Qianlong reigns ruyi sceptres such as the one here discussed – decorated on the shaft with two lobed reserves with a chilong – were produced in large quantities, mainly used as auspicious gift by the imperial court, such as the jade examples donated in 1793 to King George III and senior members of the first British embassy in China (M. Wilson, Chinese Jades, London 2004, p. 90). Even if they were realized in a great variety of materials, cloisonné enamels types were favoured. The use of jade insets, in this case embellished with polychrome hardstones inlays to create an abstract composition of a flowered branch on a rock, is not very common: see for comparison the piece in the Phoenix Art Museum, which has white jade pierced plaques (B. Quette (edited by), Cloisonné. Chinese Enamels from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties, exhibition catalogue, New York 2011, p. 293, n. 136).
