2-736-490 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Oval Cup Stand with Animal Masks, 1736-1795. This tablet is engraved with minuscule characters; the inscribed text is an essay by the Qianlong emperor. The supreme jade quality and similar carving style (for example, the sharp inverted edges) suggest that this jade scepter could have been made during the 1700s with the artistic intent to "model after the past."