A LARGE WHITE JADE RETICULATED 'PHOENIX AND PEACH' BOULDER18th centuryThe translucent stone skilfully worked in openwork with two phoenixes grasping in their beak a meandering sprig of peaches perching atop rockwork, the mythical birds finely portrayed with well-rendered plumage and a long furcated tail curling towards the front, the lustrous white stone accentuated with cloudy inclusions, stand.22cm (8 5/8in) wide (2).Provenance: 十八世紀 白玉祥鳳獻桃擺件The motif of a bird holding a peach branch is known from the Southern Song period, but to place it in a naturalistic setting of rock and flowers is a conceit of the Qing dynasty. It is unusual to find elegant phoenix carvings of this size,pare to a related but smaller (13.3cm high) carving of a phoenix carrying a peach branch in the Palace Museum collection, Beijing, illustrated inCompendium of Collections in the Palace Museum: Jade 9, Beijing, 2011, pl.141. See also a smaller (15.6cm high) example modelled carrying a peach branch in its beak, in the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, was included in the Museum's exhibitionChinese Jades from the Collection of the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, 1989, ; and one of similar size (22.2cm high) but with a crested crane grasping a spray of peony, is illustrated in Roger Keverne,Jade, London, 1991, p.342, fig.1.鳳鳥立石啣一桃枝，桃樹生長繁茂、結實纍纍，此乃清代玉雕創作從自南宋即流行的鳥啣桃枝題材上的新演繹。同類型擺件中像本拍品般大的非常珍稀，見故宮博物院藏一青玉雕鳳啣桃枝（13.3公分高），收錄於《故宮博物院藏品大系：玉器編9：清》，北京，2011年，圖版141。另見西雅圖藝術博物館藏一鳳啣桃枝例，15.6公分高，著錄於1989年展覽目錄《Chinese Jades from the Collection of the Seattle Art Museum》，西雅圖，1989年，圖錄編號63。相若大小（22.2公分）的有一例雕鶴啣牡丹，見Roger Keverne編，《Jade》，倫敦，1991年，頁342，圖1。