Page 78 - Sotheby's Speelman Collection Oct. 3, 2018

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A PAIR OF WHITE JADE 清乾隆 白玉鵪鶉蓋盒一對
‘QUAIL’ BOXES AND COVERS

QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG
PERIOD

each well rendered in the form of a quail, the cover of the box
incised with overlapping layers of plumage crowning the bird’s
head and extending across its plump body, the head further
accentuated with slender eyes and a curved pointed beak, the
box worked in the form of the lower body of the bird, similarly
covered with plumage above a pair of claws neatly tucked
beneath, the stone of an even white colour
7.3 cm, 2⅞ in.
HK$ 400,000-600,000
US$ 51,000-76,500

The present pair of quail boxes follows a type first developed
sometime early in the Qianlong period which is represented
in a number of collections. Compare a similar pair of quail
boxes in the Seattle Art Museum also with their heads turned
but carved from a slightly yellowish stone and dated to the
Qianlong period, illustrated in James Watt, Chinese Jades
from the Collection of the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, 1989,
cat. no. 73; see also a pair of boxes formerly in the collection
of T.Y. Chao, sold in these rooms 19th November 1986, lot
144, and a matching box in the Palace Museum, Beijing,
illustrated in Zhongguo yuqi quanji [Complete collection of
Chinese jades], Shijiazhuang, 2005, vol. 6, p. 69, no. 106.
For a closely related example sold at auction, see a pair of
smaller white jade ‘quail’ boxes and covers, sold in these
rooms, 23rd October 2005, lot 333.