Page 98 - Marchant Ninety Jades For 90 Years

五 50. Recumbent deer and fawn, lu, each with elaborate lingzhi-style horns, holding in their mouths a long branch of fruiting lingzhi fungus,

十 with detailed curved spines, outlined eyes, nostrils, lips, and slight hairwork on the tails, the hooves and legs neatly tucked underneath,

the stone pale celadon.
銜 5 ⅜ inches, 13.6 cm long.
芝 Ming/Qing, 16th/17th century.
子 Openwork carved wood stand with prunus and lingzhi.
母

鹿 • From the collection of a family from Lyon, France, who purchased their pieces from famous Parisian dealers between 1930 &

青 1950, and thence by descent.
白 • A similar single deer was included by Marchant in their 80th anniversary exhibition, Chinese Jades from Han to Qing, no 57,
玉
pp. 58/9; another single deer, similarly carved, is illustrated by Brian Morgan in Naturalism & Archaism: Chinese Jades from the

Kirknorton Collection, 1995, no. 39; a further example, in the Qing Court Collection, is illustrated by Zhou Nan-quan in The

明 Complete Collection of Treasures in the Palace Museum, Jadeware (II), vol. 41, no. 210, p. 274.
末 • A group of two deer with a lingzhi branch is illustrated by Zhao Gui Ling in Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum,
清 Jade, Vol. 9, Qing Dynasty, Gu Gong Inventory no. Gu 100141, no. 145, p. 157.

初 • The deer, lu, is a symbol of longevity and is the companion of Shoulao, the god of longevity. It is often depicted with a branch of

lingzhi fungus in its mouth and is said to be the only animal capable of finding the sacred fungus of immortality. The word for

deer, lu, forms a homonym for the salary of a Chinese official, lu, and is a pun on the word wealth. Two deer form the rebus lulu

shunli, ‘May all the roads be smooth’, as the word lu is also a pun for road.

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