Page 269 - Nov 29 2017 HK Important Chinese Ceramics

VARIOUS PROPERTIES
3058
A WHITE JADE ‘TWIN GEESE AND MILLET’ CARVING
QING DYNASTY, 18TH CENTURY
The pair of geese are carved in the round swimming amongst froth-capped waves, each
grasped a stalk of millet in their beaks between them. The details of the wings and leaves
are finely incised. The stone is of an even pale tone with a few natural veins.
5 º in. (13.3 cm.) wide, carved wood stand and box
HK$300,000-500,000 US$39,000-64,000
According to Terese Tse Bartholomew in Hidden Meanings in Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 2006, p.
192, two geese together symbolises the wish for a happy marriage as geese mate for life. Geese
also represent good news, stemming from a story about Su Wu, who was in the 2nd century BC
captured by the Xiongnu. He was able to engineer his rescue by attaching a letter destined for
the emperor to the leg of a goose who was returning to China.
Compare a carving of three geese described as a brush rest in the Palace Museum Collection,
Beijing, illustrated in The Life of Emperor Qianlong, Macao Museum of Art, Macao, 2002, p. 220,
no. 63.25, dating to the Mid-Qing dynasty.

清十八世紀 白玉雙鵝獻瑞擺件

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