Page 106 - Sotheby's Important Chinese Art, Sept. 21-22, 2-21, NYC

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A PALE GREEN AND BROWN JADE FIGURE OF York, 1980, cat. no. 9; one with the mouth agape, illustrated
A TIGER in Alfred Salmony, Archaic Chinese Jades from the Edward
MING DYNASTY and Louise B. Sonnenschein Collection, Chicago, 1952, pl.
CVI, fig. 1; another in the Qing Court Collection, illustrated in
carved in the round, the coiled recumbent feline with legs The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum,
tucked underneath, the head lowered resting on the front Jadeware (I), Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 199; and two included in
paws, the long tail curled around the body and nestled the exhibition Chinese Jade Animals, Hong Kong Museum of
between the head and paws, the face with squared eyes Art, Hong Kong, 1996, cat. nos 45 and 46. Another, formerly
above a ruyi-form nose and straight mouth indicated by a in the collection of Jon Edwards, was sold at Christie’s New
single incised line, the small circular ears relaxed, the body York, 2nd December 1989, lot. 185.
with a neatly defined spine and sparsely detailed with incised Such jade carvings also relate to cast bronze forms of the
lines, the stone a greenish-beige color with russet and brown Han dynasty, including a number of gilt-bronze and inlaid-
inclusions bronze mat weights. Compare a single tiger-form gilt-bronze
Width 1⅝ in., 4.2 cm mat weight from the Alsdorf Collection, included in the
exhibition Arts of the Han Dynasty, Chinese Art Society of
PROVENANCE America, New York, 1961, cat. no. 58; and a similar pair
C.T.Loo, New York, 19th April 1951. included in the exhibition A Bronze Menagerie: Mat Weights
Collection of Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978). of Early China, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston,
2007, cat. no. 1.
LITERATURE
Alfred Salmony, Chinese Jade Through the Wei Dynasty, New $ 60,000-80,000
York, 1963, pl. XXV, fig. 1 a-b.
The pictorial tradition of depicting tigers in Chinese art has 明 玉臥虎
been traced back to circa 4000 BC, when profile images of
a tiger and dragon were placed on either side of a human 來源：
skeleton at a burial site at Xishuipo, Puyang, Henan province. 盧芹齋，紐約，1951年4月19日
Later, the tiger would be included as one of the four 史蒂芬•瓊肯三世（1978年逝）收藏
directional animals, sishen, representing the west.
The present lot is inspired by jade tigers from the Han 出版：
dynasty which are typically carved in coiled recumbent Alfred Salmony，《Chinese Jade Through the Wei Dy-
or seated positions, following the form of the pebble, and nasty》，紐約，1963年，圖版XXV，圖1 a-b
carved with squared eyes, sparsely incised details and
a flattened base. Compare one, with the head raised, in
the collection of Brian McElney, included in the exhibition
51 Chinese Jades from Han to Ch’ing, Asia House Gallery, New
A PALE CELADON JADE LOBED CUP A closed related example sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 29th
MING DYNASTY May 2012, lot 4307. Another related example of round form
with a landscape design sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 1st
the eight-lobed floriform sides rising from a conforming June 2017, lot 76.
pedestal foot, the sides set with a pair of archaistic scroll
handles each incised at the top with a beast mask, the $ 20,000-30,000
rim finely incised with a keyfret band, the highly polished
translucent stone a pale celadon tone with natural inclusions 明 青白玉菱花式雙耳盃
Width 4⅜ in., 11.2 cm
來源：
PROVENANCE
史蒂芬•瓊肯三世 (1978年逝) 收藏
Collection of Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978).
Compare a closely related cup carved with a Yong Shou
mark to the base, in the collection of Humphrey K. F. Hui,
exhibited in Virtuous Treasures: Chinese Jades for the
Scholar’s Table, University Museum and Art Gallery of the
University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2008, cat. no. 14. See
two similar examples of archaistic design, one of octagonal
form in the collection of Queen Elizabeth II, published in John
Ayers, Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Collection
of Her Majesty the Queen, vol. 3, London, 2016, pl. 1820;
the other of rounded form in the collection of the British
Museum, illustrated in Jessica Rawson, Chinese Jade - From
the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, p. 389, fig. 8.

102 SOTHEBY’S COMPLETE CATALOGUING AVAILABLE AT SOTHEBYS.COM/N10748 PROPERTY FROM THE JUNKUNC COLLECTON 103