Archaistic jade rhytons of this type have their antecedents in jade rhytons of Han-dynasty date, such as the example from the Han-dynasty tomb of the King of Nanyue, illustrated by Jessica Rawson, Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, British Museum, 1995, p. 70. fig. 61. That vessel, which was inspired by a Western Asian form, is in the shape of a horn that rises from a twisted, bifurcated tail-form handle at the bottom and is incised around the sides with scroll decoration. By the Song and Ming dynasties and into the Qing dynasty, this shape was modified and the sides were carved with bands of decoration inspired by that found on bronzes and jades of the Eastern Zhou and Han dynasties.
By the Qing dynasty most jade rhytons appear to be of two types, those with and those without a handle, but all with an undulating mouth rim indicating that they were used as pouring vessels. Most are of a shape related to the present example, and all are decorated around the sides with archaistic designs, usually arranged with a wide band of decoration below a narrower band, the two sometimes separated by a narrow rope-twist border and often with a narrow band of keyfret around the rim. The decoration on the present vessel, and the manner in which it is carved in crisp, low relief, is very similar to that of the white jade archaistic rhyton (7 ¾ in.) in the Irving Collection, sold at Christie’s, Part I, 20 March 2019, lot 804. However, unlike the present rhyton it has a handle formed by a horned dragon crawling up to the rim on one of the narrow sides. Other jade rhytons dated to the Qing dynasty with handles include the example in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge illustrated by Jessica Rawson, Chinese Jade throughout the ages, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1975, p. 134, pl. 446, dated to the Qianlong period, and the white jade example in the Qing Court Collection, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum – 42 – Jadeware (III), Hong Kong, 1995, p. 168., pl. 136.
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