A FINE CHINESE PALE-CELADON 'FINGER CITRON' WATER POT

Qing Dynasty, 18th - 19th Century

清十八或十九世紀 青白玉佛手水盃

Finely carved to depict a ripe finger citron issuing from a leafy branch, with upward-curling 'fingers' sprouting from an ovoid body with a wide aperture to the top, all from a stone of an even pale-celadon tone

10.2cm long

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NOTE:

A related jade water pot in the form of a 'Buddha's hand' was sold by Bonhams New Bond Street, 13 May 2010, lot 19. Another finger citron-form jade box and cover was in the C.T. Loo & Co., New York collection, sold at Christie's New York, 23 Mar 2012, lot 1943.

A related finger citron carving is in the Hartman Collection, illustrated by Robert Kleiner, op. cit., no. 203. Also the carving included in the exhibition 'Minor Arts of China', IV, Spink & Sons, London, 1989, illustrated in the catalogue, p. 124, no. 174.

Jade carvings of this fruit are also found hollowed as vases, for example, a pale celadon jade vase from the Victoria and Albert Museum, included in the exhibition 'Chinese Jade Throughout the Ages', Oriental Ceramic Society, 1975, no. 406. A white jade example from the Metropolitan Museum of Art is illustrated by Geoffrey Wills, 'Jade of the East', New York, 1972, fig. 65.