Page 46 - Robert Youngman Collection Of Chinese Jade March 2019 Sotheby's

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A WHITE JADE ‘BOY AND BIRD’ GROUP
QING DYNASTY
the cheerful youth kneeling and petting a small bird, the bird’s tail sweeping under the boy’s right knee and its head lifted to receive the boy’s gentle
touch, the boy dressed in loose robes falling in folds over his arms and knees, his smiling face tilted downward and framed by the shawl billowing
around the shoulders, a small badger clambering across the boy’s shoulders and toying with the shawl, the stone of a even creamy-white color

清 白玉雕歡喜童子把件
Height 2⅛ in., 5.5 cm
$ 6,000-8,000

The theme of boys playing with animals is a traditional motif favored for its implied wish for male offspring. With the cheerful boy tending
to a small bird accompanied by a badger on his shoulders, the combination of imagery on the present lot is uncommon. His shawl billows
around him, the drapery enveloping the entire figure from top to bottom. Compare a celadon jade figure of a boy carrying a lotus spray with
the garments similarly worked, formerly in the collection of T.Y. Chao, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 30th November 2017, lot 357. For an
example with the composition and drapery carved in a similar manner, see a figure of Liu Hai, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 27th November
2013, lot 3602 (part lot).

44 SOTHEBY’S