Page 84 - Christie's Asian Art Auctions PARIS December 2019

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GROUPE DE TROIS BELIERS EN AGATE The ram is a symbol of flial piety, kindness and patience. The three
CHINE, XIXEME-XXEME SIECLE rams, san yang, are also an auspicious motif, related both to the sun
Le groupe représente un grand bélier couché avec ses deux petits and to male children, as they provide a rebus for san yang kai tai, ‘the
à ses côtés. Les cornes, les yeux ainsi que les oreilles sont fnement opening up of the new growth in spring’, which in turn symbolises
sculptés de manière réaliste. happiness and good fortune. Compare with three jade groups of the
Largeur: 13 cm. (5¿ in.), socle three rams in the Palace Museum, Beijing, two illustrated in
Zhongguo Yuqi Quanji, vol. 6, pp. 186 and 210, pls. 269 and 307;
€15,000-20,000 US$17,000-22,000
and another larger group illustrated in Jadeware (III), The Complete
£13,000-17,000
Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1995, pl.
AN AGATE 'THREE RAMS' GROUP 88, p. 108; one in the Tianjin Municipal Museum, illustrated in Cang
CHINA, 19TH-20TH CENTURY Yu, Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 216; a group included in S. Marchant & Son’s
80th Anniversary Exhibition, Chinese Jades from Han to Qing, London,
十九/二十世紀 瑪瑙雕三羊開泰擺件
2005, Catalogue, p. 78, no. 74; another from the Alan and Simone
Hartman Collection, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 27 November
2007, lot 1560; and another also from the Hartman Collection, sold at
Christie’s Hong Kong, 28 November 2006, lot 1418.

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