A LARGE PALE CELADON JADE 'EIGHT IMMORTALS' TEAPOT AND COVER Late Ming Dynasty (3)A London private collection of jade carvings and Chinese works of art, lots 1-104A LARGE PALE CELADON JADE 'EIGHT IMMORTALS' TEAPOT AND COVERLate Ming DynastyCarved and well-hollowed from a single monumental piece of jade, the rectangular body supported on a high square foot below angular shoulders, the body set with raised rectangular panels with curved edges, one panel carved to depict four Immortals beneath a pine tree and beside a deer, the reverse panel with the other four Immortals beside a crane with peach tree branches overhead, the rectilinear ear-shaped handle opposite an S-shaped spout, each emerging between two confronting kui dragons incised to the raised panel, the handle with a chi dragon naturalistically carved grasping the handle with head lowered to face the rim, the bifurcated tail nestled over a flange at the base of the handle, the spout entirely encircled in a clockwise direction by a wide-eyed dragon chasing a flaming pearl and stepping off a bed of clouds, all dynamically carved and pierced in high relief, the foot and rim with a key-scroll band repeated at the base of the cover, its four concave facetted sides narrowing to a finial carved as Shoulao seated between a deer and crane atop a rockwork throne, supported on a tightly fitting rectangular stand with pierced aprons carved to depict confronting kui dragons among scrolling patterns.28cm (11in) long (3).Provenance: a London private collection amassed between the 1970s and 1990s and thence by descent.The depiction of the Eight Immortals has a precedent in the Imperial late Ming jade pear-shaped ewer in the Palace Museum collection illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Jadeware, I, 1999, p.298, cat. no. 315 where four Immortals are similarly incised to each side. The style of both incised carvings draws on carving in cinnabar lacquer of the period where the treatment of the figures is closely related. See for example, the octagonal lobed lacquer box from the Qing Court collection bearing the Daoist Immortals illustrated in Lacquer Wares of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2006, pp.252-253, no.200.The form of the present piece relates very closely to four square-form jade teapots in the Imperial collection, illustrated in Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum: Jade, 7, Beijing, 2011, pp.90-93, nos.74-77. Of these no.75 is the most similar in shape, whilst no.76 incorporates the Shoulao figure complete with crane and deer forming the finial, a feature also present on the pear-shaped ewer mentioned above.The present piece deviates from the published Imperial pieces by being significantly larger and by its more dramatic treatment of the dragons to the spout and handle. For a ewer with a related handle with a naturalistically carved chi dragon sprawling over the handle, see a ewer (yi) published in Geoffrey Wills, Jade of The East, no.105, p.121.