Page 56 - Robert Youngman Collection Of Chinese Jade March 2019 Sotheby's

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A RARE WHITE AND RUSSET JADE ‘MUSICIAN’ PENDANT
SONG – YUAN DYNASTY
seated leaning on the left hip with the left knee folded on the ground and the right knee raised, the right arm bent at the elbow and holding the end
of a narrow musical instrument by the shoulder, the left hand plucking the opposite end of the instrument in front of the belly, the face tilted and
glancing up with a smile and a small patch of hair at the forehead, loose garments fluttering around the body, the textiles finely patterned with a
diaper of wanzi- and star-filled units, the stone an icy white color streaked with russet, pierced from the head through the seat, stand (2)
宋至元 白玉雕樂人把件
Height 1½ in., 3.8 cm
$ 20,000-30,000

PROVENANCE 來源
Collection of Jon Edwards. Jon Edwards 收藏
Weisbrod Chinese Art Ltd., New York. Weisbrod Chinese Art, Ltd.，紐約
EXHIBITED 展覽
A Private Collection of Early Chinese Jade Carvings, 《A Private Collection of Early Chinese Jade Carvings》，
Weisbrod Chinese Art Ltd., New York, 1994, no. 25. Weisbrod Chinese Art Ltd.，紐約，1994年，編號25
出版
LITERATURE
Robert P. Youngman, The Youngman Collection of 羅伯特•楊門，《楊門藏玉：中國玉器·新石器時代至清代》，
芝加哥，2008年，圖版180
Chinese Jades from Neolithic to Qing, Chicago, 2008,
pl. 180.

This charming figure of a musician captures the delight that a child entertainer would have brought to an audience. The hems of his sleeves
fly from his elbows from the vigor of his playing, while his sweet smile and soft eyes beam with the pleasure he takes in his craft. Though the
instrument cannot be identified, the player’s engagement with it has been finely articulated with the right hand wrapping totally around one
end, and the fingers of the left hand spreading across the opposite end evoking a different type of gesture. The detail incised into the garment
further attests to the high level of care that the carver took in crafting this bead.
Similar treatment of the garments and bodily expression can be found in a Song dynasty white jade carving of a boy and lotus in the
collection of the Palace Museum, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Jadeware, vol. 2, Hong Kong,
1995, cat. no. 81; a Yuan dynasty white jade figure of a boy holding flowers in the same collection, illustrated in ibid., pl. 146; and a white
and russet jade carving of Mohouluo sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28th May 2014, lot 3245.

54 SOTHEBY’S