Page 121 - Sothebys HK Dragon Emperor April 2024
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 A RARE CELADON JADE ‘DRAGON HEAD’   元   青白玉龍首
 ORNAMENT,
 YUAN DYNASTY
 21.8 cm

 HK$ 1,200,000-1,800,000
 US$ 154,000-231,000




















 An auspicious beast that brings benevolent rulers and live-  See a Tang dynasty dragon head from the Junkunc
 giving rain in its wake, in all of Chinese iconography there   Collection, carved in a similar style with a deep rectangular
 are few that even come close to the power and might of the   trough at the rear and illustrated in Alfred Salmony, Chinese
 dragon.  Jade Through the Wei Dynasty, New York, 1963, pl. XXXI-2,
 Boldly rendered with glaring eyes and finely incised cloud-  which serves as an early prototype for large jade dragons of
 like mane, this rare piece exemplifies the heights of Yuan   this kind. Compare also a very similar Yuan finial of darker
 jade carving. Jades produced in the Yuan dynasty for the   green jade from the Muwen Tang collection, illustrated in In
 Emperor and his court express an unparalleled sense of   Pursuit of Antiquities: 40th Anniversary Exhibition of the Min
 dynamism and vigour. A very similar jade finial but with   Chiu Society, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 2001,
 two deeply drilled depressions on underside and smaller   cat. no. 96.
 hole through the mane in the National Museum of Asian Art   For an example of a similarly rendered architectural element,
 (accession no. S1987.819) is illustrated in Asian Art in the   see also the carved marble dragon’s head excavated from
 Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. The Inaugural Gift. Washington,   Yuan Shangdu from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
 1987. cat. no. 85.  Museum, Hohhot, exhibited and published in The World
 The Qing dynasty encyclopaedia Gujin tushu jicheng   of Khubilai Khan: Chinese Art in the Yuan Dynasty, The
 (‘Complete collection of pictures and books of old and   Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2010, p. 49, fig. 58.
 modern times’) makes reference to five imperial carriages
 and, among them, the so-called Yu Lu (‘Jade Carriage’),
 adorned in celadon jade, on which the emperor would ride
 to perform sacrifices. Accompanying the text, a woodblock
 illustration (fig. 1) shows similar dragon-head fittings that
 were used as worthy adornments for the imperial chariot.














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