Page 106 - Marchant Ninety Jades For 90 Years

五 55. Group of two recumbent, curled, ‘kissing’ cats, their feet touching each other, their ears folded back, the stone pure white.

十 2 ¼ inches, 5.8 cm long.
五 Qianlong, 1736-1795.

雙 • From a private Hudson Valley collection, purchased in New York, circa 1980.
歡 • A similar group is illustrated by Jonathan Woolf, Angela McAteer & Colin Sheaf in The Woolf Collection of Chinese Jade, no. 111,

白 p. 228; another is illustrated by Robert P. Youngman in The Youngman Collection, Chinese Jades from Neolithic to Qing, no. 97,
玉
p. 96; a group of three cats was included by Marchant in their 85th anniversary exhibition of Chinese Jades from Tang to Qing,
2010, no. 97, p. 132; a similar group of two cats ‘kissing’ was sold by Sotheby’s Hong Kong in their auction of Playthings from

乾 the Collection of Edward T. Chow, 27th May 2014, lot no. 88, pp. 84/5.
隆 • The cat, mao, is homophonous with the word for 80-90 years old and is thus a symbol of longevity.

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