Page 108 - Marchant Ninety Jades For 90 Years

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56. Crouching winged bixie, with bifid tail and open mouth exhaling waves, its flews, eyebrows, ears and wing tips detailed with hairwork,

白 the underside revealing the claws beside ruyi-head pads, the stone white.
玉 4 ¼ inches, 10.8 cm long.

Ming/Qing dynasty, 17th century.

明 Openwork wood stand, carved with lingzhi branches.

末

清 • From the collection of F. J. Pearce, Cheshire.
初 Between 1951 and 1961 Pearce bought 77 jade carvings from Bluett and in 1968 Bluett sold the collection.

F. J. Pearce • Purchased from Bluett & Sons, 21st September 1953.

• From a private English collection.

• Purchased from Bluett & Sons, 14th June 1968.

• This piece is clearly inspired by Western Han dynasty jade carvings of bixie; an example in the Gugong is illustrated by Liu Yang
先 & Edmund Capon in Translucent World, Chinese Jade from the Forbidden City, an exhibition held at the Art Gallery of New
生
舊 South Wales, Sydney, Australia, 2007, no. 33, p. 84, where the authors note, ‘The mythical chimera, or bixie (‘ward off evil’), is
藏 carved in a crouching position with fangs exposed in a roar, as if about to pounce. The bixie figure functioned as a talisman and
was always carved in the round. Although very small, it echoes the monumentality of the larger sculptures that guard the ‘spirit

1968 road’ to the imperial cemetery. The bixie remained a popular subject in Chinese art until the Tang dynasty and then came back

into vogue during the Qing dynasty.’

年 • Another Han dynasty mythological animal, described as a chimera, from the collection of Mr. W. P. Chung, is illustrated by Ip
Yee in Chinese Jade Carving, an exhibition jointly presented by the Urban Council Hong

月 Kong and the Min Chiu Society, organised by the Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1983, no.
126, pp. 136/7.

日 • A Song dynasty sword slide, ge, carved with a mythical animal described as a hydra, with

購 similar scrolls and details, is illustrated by Zhao Gui Ling in Compendium of Collections

于 in the Palace Museum, Jade, Vol. 5, Tang, Song, Liao, Jin and Yuan Dynasties, Gu Gong

古 Inventory no. Gu 85563, no. 130, pp. 122/3; two Ming dynasty mythical beasts of
董 related form are illustrated by C. P. Lin, Eve M.Y. Tam, Peter Y. K. Lam, Rosemary Scott
商 and Raymond M. L. Tang in Ming and Qing Chinese Art, from the C. P. Lin Collection, an
Bluett & Sons
exhibition presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, organized by the

Hong Kong Museum of Art, 2014, nos. 123/4, pp. 228/9.

• An early Qing version, in the Qing Court collection, is illustrated by Zhang Guang

Wen in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Jadeware (II),

no. 160, p. 198.

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