Page 66 - Marchant Ninety Jades For 90 Years

三 31. Kard handle of Mughal type, realistically carved as a horse’s
十 head with ruby inlaid eyes, detailed hairwork to the mane
一 and forehead, broad nostrils and lipped mouth, the neck

ridged for holding, the stone white with slight grey flecks.
馬 Handle length 4 ¼ inches, 10.8 cm; total length 10 ¾
首 inches, 27.3 cm.
刀 18th century.
柄

白 • From the collection of Fong Chow (1923-2012),
玉 former curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York.

十 • Two carved handles, one in spinach jade, carved
八 with the head of a nilgal also inset with ruby eyes
世 and dated to 1700, together with a mutton fat
紀 ram’s head handle, again inset with ruby eyes, are

illustrated by Robert Hales in Islamic and Oriental

Fong Chow Arms and Armour, no. 96 & 97, p. 44; another, with

grey jade ram’s head handle is illustrated by Jonathan

Woolf, Angela McAteer & Colin Sheaf in The Woolf

Collection of Chinese Jade, no. 57, p. 153, collection
先 number 384.
生 • A white jade horse-head handle sword, in the Qing
舊 Court Collection, is illustrated by Xu Qi Xian in
藏 Armaments and Military Provisions, The Complete

Collection of Treasures of The Palace Museum, Beijing,

Volume 56, no. 156, p. 153.

• A kard is a Persian knife found across the Middle

East and India. Mostly used in the 18th century and

earlier, it has a straight single-edged blade and no

guard. Most examples have a handle carved from

bone, ivory or horn.

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