A tray or dish, leaf shaped, dark green nephrite jade, India

A dish or tray, fashioned in dark green nephrite jade and polished. It has been carved as a multi-veined leaf, with the veins being carved as shallow channels that emanate from a central rib and proceed to the gently undulating edge. The blunt end of the dish has a short, integrally carved scrolled stem and the other end is pointed.
The underside has been similarly carved with a series of channels that represent the leaf veins and the foot has been carved in low relief as a poppy with three rows of five petals. From under this poppy design emerge two flower buds and three leaves, and the base of the handle has also been decorated with two leaf fronds.
There are several dark crystalline inclusions present, some of which have reached the surface and have a metallic appearance.

Wells Bequest

This dish was acquired by Arthur Wells who was a Nottingham solicitor and Clerk of the Peace. He was a keen traveller and was made a Fellow of the Geographical Society. He is considered to be the first private British collector of Chinese jade and his collection of jade and other hardstone objects from South Asia was on exhibition at the South Kensington Museum at the time of his death in 1882. This collection was left to the museum in his will - the Wells Bequest.

This dish has been fashioned from a single piece of nephrite jade, which is a hard and durable material that requires patience and skill to work. Even though it is a hard material, when it has been worked to give fine edges or thicknesses, it can be prone to damage by sharp impacts or significant and rapid changes in temperature. Objects such as this would have been destined only for people of some means.

1679-1882