Flattened vessel (hu) with lid and animal-head handles

Rising from a flattened high-waisted foot, the belly of this vessel swells gently to squared shoulders and a constricted neck flanked by two animal-head handles with loose rings. The body is completely undecorated except for a band of squared scroll at the foot and the lip. The domed lid, with a matching band of scroll at its bottom, culminates in a rectangular finial (compare B60 J500).

Such large jade vessels became common in the latter part of the Qianlong emperor's reign, when jade fields in Central Asia were conquered by the empire, and massive amounts of jade began to flow eastward. The restrained design of this vessel is reminiscent of monochrome porcelains that adopted the forms of bronzes and that were produced at imperial kilns throughout the eighteenth century