Page 74 - Christies IMportant Chinese Art Sept 26 2020 NYC

THE IRVING COLLECTION 歐雲伉儷珍藏
THE FLORENCE AND HERBERT IRVING COLLECTION
~1543
A LARGE AND FINELY CARVED WHITE JADE 'ELEPHANT AND
BOYS' GROUP
QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)
The elephant is carved with its head turned to the proper left side, and its
skin hanging in heavy folds. A bearded foreigner holding a floral spray and
a ruyi scepter is standing by the left hind leg. There are two boys sitting on
the back of the elephant, holding between them a large vase containing
leafy fronds and fruit. Two attendants with long, curled hair are clambering
up the sides of the elephant, one holding a stick, and the other holding a
gnarled branch. The stone is of even, white tone.
7Ω in. (19 cm.) high, hongmu stand
$500,000-800,000
PROVENANCE:
C. T. Loo, by repute.
The Property of a Gentleman; Sotheby’s London, 28 October 1983, lot 170.
Spink & Son, Ltd., London, 1983.
The Irving Collection, New York, no. 424.

清乾隆 白玉雕童子洗象擺件

The elephant is an auspicious symbol which is used in numerous
rebuses to convey peace, prosperity and good fortune. The present
carving combines two of the most popular elephant rebuses: boys
riding and washing an elephant, jixiang, represent good fortune, and
an elephant supporting a vase, taiping youxiang, represents ‘peace in
the land.’
With its auspicious theme, images of boys washing an elephant found
favor in the Qing court, and were depicted by court painters such as
Ding Guanpeng (fl. c. 1738-1768): see a hanging scroll in ink and color,
depicting attendants washing an elephant, dated 1750 and with the
artist’s signature, two seals of the artist and one seal of the Emperor
Qianlong, now in the Palace Museum, Beijing, no. GU4794.

The depiction of boys washing an elephant was also a particularly
popular subject matter for jade carvings, giving a lively context to a
sophisticated play on words. A related carving of two boys washing
an elephant, also of white jade and of a similarly large size (20.4
cm. high) as the present example, in the Qing Court Collection, is
in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, and is illustrated
in Jadeware (III). The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace
Museum, Hong Kong, 1995, p.117, pl. 98. (Fig. 1) The Beijing carving
was also included in an exhibition at the Royal Academy in London,
and illustrated in China. The Three Emperors 1662-1795, London,
2005, p. 377, no. 300.
Another example of a white jade carving of figures with an elephant,
also in the Qing Court Collection, is illustrated ibid., pl. 97. This
carving shows a boy with a ruyi scepter clambering on the back of
the elephant, while a man wearing a hat stands at the proper left hind
leg. In comparison, the standing figure in the Irving carving appears Fig 1. A carved white jade elephant and figural group,
to be a foreigner, suggested by the curling beard and the band around Qianlong period (1736-1795).
The Palace Museum/ Image copyright
© The Palace Museum