Page 86 - Robert Youngman Collection Of Chinese Jade March 2019 Sotheby's

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A WHITE AND GRAY JADE CARVING OF A HARE
SONG DYNASTY
carved seated on its back haunches, the feet tucked under the rounded body, the head turning backwards and nestling onto the left shoulder, the face
in an expression of intense focus with the eyes wide open and accentuated by the ridge of the furrowed forehead, the ears folded back, the stone of a
creamy tone with milky inclusions, shifting to a soft brownish-gray at the hare’s back and right side

宋 玉雕瑞兔把件
Length 1¾ in., 4.4 cm
$ 30,000-50,000

PROVENANCE 來源
Mu-Fei Collection (Collection of Professor Cheng 木扉收藏 (鄭德坤教授收藏)
Te-K’un). Bluett & Sons, Ltd.，倫敦，1990年11月22日
Bluett & Sons, Ltd., London, 22nd November 1990. 展覽
EXHIBITED 《木扉珍藏玉器》，Bluett & Sons，倫敦，1990年，編號66
Chinese Jades from the Mu-Fei Collection, Bluett & 出版
Sons, London, 1990, cat no. 66. 羅伯特•楊門，《楊門藏玉：中國玉器·新石器時代至清代》，
LITERATURE 芝加哥，2008年，圖版123
Robert P. Youngman, The Youngman Collection of
Chinese Jades from Neolithic to Qing, Chicago, 2008,
pl. 123.

Animals held a particular fascination for jade carvers of the Song dynasty, who tirelessly worked stones to reveal images of nearly every type
of creature, both real and imaginary. Their approaches toward representation can broadly be divided into two categories: the realist aesthetic,
in which the individual furs and feathers are minutely articulated, and the essentialist mode, in which the fundamental nature of the animal is
conveyed through its body language alone. The present carving embodies the purity of form of the latter approach. Here, the hare is stripped
of all superfluous detail. The carver has restricted the form to the principal well-rounded contours of the hare’s anatomy and the few incised
lines that define the toes and the alert facial expression. Yet, these are sufficient to identify the animal and its sense of anticipation.
Song dynasty jade carvings of animals executed in this manner of representation include a figure of a camel-like mythical beast in the
collection of the Palace Museum, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Jadeware, vol. 2, Hong Kong,
1995, pl. 58; a carving of a ‘sanyang’ group from the Chang Shuo Studio Collection exhibited in Chinese Jade Animals, Hong Kong Museum
of Art, Hong Kong, 1996, cat. no. 90, and later sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 5th April 2017, lot 3321; a single jade ram included in the
same exhibition, ibid., cat. no. 91; and white jade carving of a ram in the collection of Brian McElney, included in Chinese Jade Carving,
Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1983, cat. no. 142.

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