Page 62 - Robert Youngman Collection Of Chinese Jade March 2019 Sotheby's

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A WHITE JADE ‘BOY AND LOTUS’ FIGURE
17TH - 18TH CENTURY
deftly carved, the standing figure with the body swaying gently to one side wearing a long robe tied at the waist with a sash over trousers, the head
slightly tilted and a gentle smile playing across the lips, the hair shaved at the crown of the head leaving a short fringe across the forehead and long
locks at the back of the head, the ends of the tresses curling into tight spirals at the shoulders, the right arm bent at the shoulder and holding a ball at
the chest, the left hand grasping lotus stem, the shoots of the stem peeling outward in openwork, the stone an even white color with a slight tinge of
yellow at the left elbow
十七至十八世紀 白玉雕蓮生貴子把件

Height 2⅝ in., 6.5 cm
$ 30,000-50,000

During the Song and Yuan dynasties, during the Qixi (‘Double Seven’) festival, when the constellations of the Cowherd and the Weaving
Maid met, children would play in the streets wearing waistcoats and carrying lotus leaves. The custom was inspired by Mohouluo figures,
which were fertility cult objects associated with this festival. Mohouluo dolls were in the form of a boy holding a lotus plant and could be
made from clay, ivory, gold, wood, or jade. Although the cult dedicated to Mohouluo died out at the end of the Yuan dynasty, the production
of jade figures of this subject continued in subsequent dynasties.
The present figure draws upon the Moheluo tradition but the style of carving places it definitively in the late Ming to early Qing period.
See, for instance, a late Ming dynasty gray jade carving of a boy carrying a rice stalk and a lantern, exhibited in Chinese Jades from Han
to Ch’ing, Asia Society, New York, 1980, cat. no. 97. Here, the treatment of the face and the circular movement of the composition —
specifically, with the raised left hand holding a plant that is carved in openwork and arcs toward the boy’s head, while the right arm sweeps
across the chest to complete the composition — bear a striking resemblance to the workmanship of the present figure of a boy carrying a
lotus stem. The garments and the curled hair of the ‘boy and lotus’ figure also compare favorably to a late Ming - early Qing dynasty celadon
jade figure of an immortal and a boy, in the collection of Dr. Ip Yee, included in Chinese Jade Carving, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong
Kong, 1983, cat. no. 171. A similar style of carving was also used for a late Ming - early Qing dynasty figure of an old man and a boy, in
the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Philip Chu, included in the same exhibition, ibid., cat. no. 174; and a Ming dynasty white jade carving of a
recumbent boy, excavated from the Gu family cemetery in Shanghai, and illustrated in Gu Fang, Zhongguo chutu yuqi quanji / The Complete
Collection of Jades Unearthed in China, vol. 7, Beijing, 2005, pl. 277.

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