Page 120 - Marchant Ninety Jades For 90 Years

六 63. Miniature group of a recumbent water buffalo and qilin touching each other with a front hoof, the buffalo’s tail beneath the mouth of

十 the qilin, with detailed carving to their horns and bodies and hairwork to their tails, the stone black and white.

三 2 inches, 5.1 cm long.

Qianlong/Jiaqing, circa 1800.
水 Carved wood stand.
牛

麒 • From the collection of a family from Lyon, France, who purchased their pieces from famous Parisian dealers between 1930 and
麟 1950, and thence by descent.

黑 • A similar group is illustrated by Angus Forsyth and Brian McElney in Jades from China, The Museum of East Asian Art, Bath,
白 no. 325, p. 396; another is illustrated by René-Yvon Lefebvre d’Argencé in Chinese Jade in the Avery Brundage Collection, plate
玉 XLVII, pp. 108/9, where the author notes, ‘This other unusual group illustrates one of the several legends according to which a

ch’i-lin was born of a cow. Such illustrations, whether in jade or in other materials, are exceedingly rare, even though the ch’i-lin

乾 was generally regarded as a cross between either a dragon and a cow or a dragon and a deer’; a further large multicoloured group
隆 is illustrated by Robert Kleiner in Chinese Jades from the Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, no. 60, p. 68.
/ • A black and white buffalo and boy carving, from the Qing Court Collection, is illustrated Zhang Guang Wen in The Complete
嘉 Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Jadeware (II), no. 140, p. 181; three miniature black and white jade animal carvings,

慶 from the collection of Dr Richard E. Fuller, are illustrated by James C. Y. Watt in Chinese Jades from the Collection of the Seattle

Art Museum, nos. 65a,b & c, pp. 86/7; two others, from the collection of Michael S. L. Liu are illustrated by Humphrey K. F.

Hui, Tina Yee-wan Pang and Yeung Chun-tong in Virtuous Treasures, Chinese Jade for the Scholars Table, an exhibition organised

by the University Museum and Art Gallery, The University of Hong Kong, 2007 nos. 106 & 107, pp. 182/3.

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