Page 154 - Bonham's Asian Art London November 12, 2015

163 THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN 士紳藏品

164 163
152 | BONHAMS A GREEN AND RUSSET JADE ‘BIXIE’ WATER
DROPPER
16th/17th century
Carved in the form of a recumbent bixie, its large
head with grinning mouth and bulging eyes framed
by thickly twisting brows, its back hollowed with an
aperture and surrounded by two horns and tufts of
hair, terminating with flaming haunches and a thick
bifurcated tail. 8cm (3 1/8in) long

£3,000 - 5,000
HK$35,000 - 59,000
CNY29,000 - 48,000

十六/十七世紀 青玉帶皮辟邪式水盂

Provenance： an English private collection

來源： 英國私人收藏

For a related pale green and russet jade mythical
beast water dropper and stopper, Ming dynasty,
from the Qing Court Collection, see The Complete
Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum:
Jadeware I, Beijing, 2008, pl.292.

A larger related example sold in these rooms on 8
November 2012, lot 8.

THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN 士紳藏品

164
A PALE GREEN AND RUSSET JADE CARVING
OF AN ELEPHANT AND BOY
19th century
The stone carved as a charmingly-wrinkled elephant
with its head turned to the left, covered with a
tasselled saddle-cloth incised with cloud scrolls
above waves, a young groom with jovial expression
clambering on his back clutching a lingzhi stem over
his shoulder. 11cm (4 3/8in) wide

£4,000 - 6,000
HK$47,000 - 71,000
CNY39,000 - 58,000

十九世紀 青白玉帶皮童子執靈芝騎象擺件

Provenance: acquired in China in the early 1900s
by repute, and thence by descent

來源： 傳於1900年代得於中國，後由家族繼承

The phrase ‘ride an elephant’, qixiang, has a similar
pronunciation as jixiang, good fortune. Boys riding
on an elephant with a ruyi thus form the rebus jixiang
ruyi, which stands for ‘good fortune as you wish’.
Compare a related example from the Qing Court
Collection, illustrated in The Complete Collection
of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Jadeware (III),
Hong Kong, 1995, pl.97. A related pale green and
russet jade elephant and boy, 18th century, sold in
these rooms on 8 November 2012, lot 4.