Lidded box

Flower buds surmount the tops of these two containers made of very thin transparent light green jade. The larger box is shaped like a leaf with two pointed ends. The smaller one has a hinged lid, and the hinge is shaped like a flower bud, a typical Mughal motif. Bands of flowers and leaf arabesques decorate the vessels, except for the lower section of the larger compartment's sides. Those are filled with twelve ogival arches in which genre scenes in the Mughal style alternate with floral motifs. Couples in the arches are shown drinking, playing games, and making love. This piece is conceived in the "Hindustan" style, a term coined by the Qianlong emperor, who was enamored of such jades.
After 1759, when the emperor quelled the Muslim and Dzungar rebellions in Xinjiang, more Mughal jades came to the court as tributes and gifts. Qianlong was very impressed with these jades—their naturalism, their polish, and above all their thin walls. He wrote numerous poems in praise of "Hindustan" jades, and had the vessels copied in the imperial jade workshop. The fame of these foreign vessels spread far and wide, and they were imitated in workshops all over China. This type of jade carving continued well into the twentieth century.