Page 191 - Bonhams May 12 16 London

The provenance for the British Museum jade water buffalo, dated 17th
century, previously from the collections of Colonel Arthur Jebb and
the Rt.Hon Lord Gladwyn, is described by J.Rawson as ‘said to have
come from the Summer Palace, Beijing during the China War of 1860’;
see J.Rawson, Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, London,
1995, Catalogue no.26:19. The provenance for the British Museum
buffalo is further detailed in the footnote to lot 11 in Sotheby’s London, culmination of Chinese jade sculptural traditions, combining practical,
15 December 1987,noting that the British Museum jade buffalo was ...
looted from the Summer Palace, Peking in 1860 and rescued on the
troop ship from a soldier who was attempting to break it up for easier
concealment on coming ashore...’. This evidence would therefore
strongly indicate an Imperial history for the present lot.
As a familiar beast of the fields, the buffalo underpinned rice
production and the rural economy. As such it is emblematic of
agriculture and spring time, and represents strength, endurance,
dedication to hard work, prosperity and tranquillity. It is also used in
artistic representation, in particular in Chinese paintings, to evoke a
bucolic, idealised existence in the countryside. This in turn feeds into
a more mythical or spiritual side to the buffalo, recalling both Buddhist
and Daoist concerns with simplicity and retreat, and the founder of
Daoism, the philosopher Laozi, who departed from the borders of
the known world on a buffalo. Another aspect of the buffalo is its
guardian function, stemming from the legend of the Emperor Yu of the
Xia dynasty casting an iron ox to subdue floods. This connection was
most notably represented in the huge bronze ox commissioned by the
Qianlong emperor in 1755 and placed gazing out over the Kunming
Lake at the Summer Palace. Depicted in jade rather than bronze,
with an eternally placid yet watchful expression, the present lot surely
also observes and protects its owner. In its size and presence, it is a
spiritual and protective elements to a far greater extent than other
buffalo carvings.
It is extremely rare to find animals of such striking size, and although
widely published and much admired, exceptionally large jade animals
such as the present lot in fact form a very select and unusual group
within the tradition of Chinese jade carving. Usually carved with great
sensitivity and naturalness as horses or buffaloes, such pieces have
been traditionally dated to the late Ming to early Qing period, based
upon a number of factors: the similar mid-green or occasionally greyish
colour of the pieces suggest that they were sourced before the quelling
of Xinjiang in 1759 gave access to fine and large raw jades sent in
as tribute from the new vassal region, however the monumentality,
elegance and strength of the carving seem to associate the pieces
more with the confident early Qing style.