AN EXCEPTIONAL IMPERIAL WHITE JADE RAM'S CUP QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)the ltro and even white stone exquisitely worked in the form of a lobed floral bloom with delicate rounded walls rising steeply from the foot, one side elegantly tapering into an openwork handle modelled in the form of a ram's head depicted turned to one side, the beast sensitively rendered with a serene expression with a slightly open mouth and a beard conjoined to the exterior of the vessel, its head accentuated by a pair of precisely striated curved horns, one extending into and silhouetting the edge of the vessel, the exterior of the vessel decorated in low relief with a band of upright acanth leaves, all supported on a splayed foot depicted as a lot bloom with furled petal tips radiating from a rounded centre.Exquisitely fashioned from a fine white stone to form a stunningly delicate yet equally masculine vessel, this piece is rooted firmly in the tradition of Hindtan carving of the Mughal period. The ram’s head, modelled with carefully detailed facial features andbed beard, curves gracefully before flaring into a contrasting gourd-form cup. The exterior of the cup furtherplements the delicate scalloped form, which has been elegantly carved with acanth leaves, and the foot modelled in the form of a fleshy lot flower. The milky white jade heightens the sense of mystery and ethereality to undoubtedly cater to the Qianlong Emperor’s taste for the exotic.Provenance: Atlanta, A Private Collection - 1970's Footnotes: Mughal-style ram's-head c made during the Qianlong period follow two distinctive forms and styles: an asymmetric gourd shape that closely imitates the famo Shah Jahan cup, and a Chinese variation of the Mughal version that has a deeper cup that is of lobed form. The present piece follows the Shah Jahan cup closely, particularly in the thinly-carved walls, elegantly rendered head and curving neck of the ram, and highly floral decoration. The Shah Jahan cup, in the Victoria and Albert Meum, London (IS.12-1962), is one of the finest pieces of Mughal jade recorded. That cup, which is attributed to the 17th century (it also bears an inscription relating it to Shah Jahan and dating it to 1657), would appear to predate the present piece by about a century. It is recorded since 1868, when it was in the collection of Colonel Charles Seton Guthrie, late of the Bengal Engineers, who went to India in 1828, and it entered the Meum's collection in 1962. It is illtrated and discsed by Robert Skelton, The Indian Heritage, Court Life and Arts Under Mughal rule, Victoria & Albert Meum, London, 1982, p.151, no.12, and by San Stronge, Made for Mughal Emperors – Royal Treasures from Hindtan, London, 2010, p. 215, pls. 177-8.A cup of this type, but lacking the detailed curve of the ram’s neck and with a flat floral foot, in the National Palace Meum, Taipei, was included