A 'CHILONG' IVORY POURING SPOON, QING DYNASTY

A 'CHILONG' IVORY POURING SPOON, QING DYNASTY
China, 18th century. Carved in log raft shape with a figural handle depicting five intertwined chilong dragons with their bifurcated tails executed in meticulous openwork. One dragon has its head upside down and a lingzhi cloud pattern, in high relief, is adorning the rim of the spoon.

Provenance: Austrian private collection.
Condition: Overall good condition with a minor old break at the handle, which has been repaired, tiny natural age cracks and wear. The ivory has nicely grown into a golden-yellow patina. Weight: 79.8 g Dimensions: Length 19.5 cmThe
present tea pouring spoon, carved from the same piece of ivory, and possibly modeled after an archaic jade, is elaborately decorated with five lively four-clawed chilong dragons, detailed with neatly incised spines, nostrils, ears and bifurcated scrolling tails. The attention on details epitomizes the exquisiteness of earlier Qing dynasty imperial ivory carving. Only a handful of other examples of this type of chilong carvings are known to exist.
Similarly carved chilong dragons with archaistic motifs appear to have been made as early as the Yuan dynasty, as suggested by a circular plaque in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, attributed to the Yuan to Ming dynasty, included in Chinese Decorative Arts: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1997, p. 41 The plaque is carved in high relief with four chilong dragons clambering on an archaistic C-scrolled ground.
For a comparable ivory box and cover from the early Qing dynasty, see one in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Palace Museum Collection of Elite Carvings, Palace Museum, Beijing, 2002, cat. no. 133
.According to court records, close to 30 ivory carvers served at the Qing court from the Kangxi to Qianlong periods, including eight artisans from Suzhou, most of them related by blood or from the same school. Surviving court archives, unfortunately, often lack the names of the carvers or the details of the works, making it difficult to match them to individual pieces. For instance, according to the records, a pair of ivory boxes with archaistic dragons was presented to the Yongzheng Emperor in late 1726 but lack further details. See Yangxindian Zaobanchu shiliao jilan [Reader of historical material on the Workshops in the Hall of Mental Cultivation], vol. 1: Yongzheng chao [Yongzheng period], Beijing, 2013, pp. 111-112 THIS LOT CAN ONLY BE SHIPPED WITHIN THE EU OR PICKED UP IN OUR GALLERY DIRECTLY. 象牙雕螭龍勺，清代中國，十八世紀。雕刻而成木筏狀，具象形手柄，刻畫了五條交織在一起的螭龍，其分叉的尾巴在細緻的鏤空中清晰可見。一條龍的頭頂朝下，勺子的邊緣飾有高浮雕的靈芝雲紋。來源：奧地利私人收藏品相：整體

品相良好，柄部有輕微舊裂，已修復。些微自然年代裂紋和磨損。自然金黃色包漿。重量：79.8

克尺寸：長 19.5

厘米此拍品只能於歐盟內寄送，或親自至本藝廊取貨。 Automatically translated by DeepL. To see the original version, click here.