Page 78 - Marchant Ninety Jades For 90 Years

三 38. Oval pendant, carved with a saddled horse turning its head, between rockwork and overhanging wutong branches, with an eight-

十 character relief inscription, bi mei ren xi, shui shi xiong ci, ‘Oh that beauty, who can tell whether it is male or female’, the reverse with a

八 young man wearing an elaborate headdress holding an implement while looking out from a hillside cave, beside rockwork and beneath

a wutong tree, the stone pure white.
駿 2 ¼ inches, 5.8 cm long.
馬 Qianlong, 1736-1795.
圖
詩 Fitted box.

文 • From a private collection purchased in Hong Kong in 1991.
牌 • A pendant of this form with a standing lady, also bearing an inscription and from the

白 collection of Victor Shaw, is illustrated by James C. Y. Watt in Chinese Jades from Han
玉 to Ch’ing, An Exhibition Held at Asia House Gallery, New York, 1980, no. 219, p. 217;

another of this form, with a lady weaving beside a window and children playing in an

乾 exterior garden, again with a relief inscription, is illustrated by Xue Gui Sheng in Zhong
隆 Guo Yu Qi Shang Jian, ‘Appreciation and Examination of Chinese Jades’, no. 274, p.

152; a further pendant, carved with Wang Xi Zhi pointing at two geese, the reverse

with Zhang Liang, bearing a Zi Gang seal, was included by Marchant in their 70th

anniversary exhibition of Post-Archaic Chinese Jades, 1995, no. 64, p. 52.

• A pendant of this form with a seated fisherman, inscription and Zi Gang seal, from the

collection of Stephen Junkunc III, was sold by Christie’s New York in their auction of

Masterworks of Ancient and Imperial China, 17th September 2008, lot 589, pp. 152/3.

• Pendants of this group display features of the Suzhou school of hardstone carving from

the eighteenth century and the workshop associated with Lu Zigang.

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