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A WHITE JADE ‘DRAGON’ ‘ZODIAC’ PENDANT, 清十八至十九世紀 白玉雕辰龍圖珮
QING DYNASTY, 18TH - 19TH CENTURY
來源
wood stand (2) 仇焱之（1910-1980）收藏
Height 3 in., 7.6 cm
香港蘇富比2014年5月27日，編號87
PROVENANCE
展覽
Collection of Edward T. Chow (1910-1980). 《Ninety Jades for 90 Years》，馬錢特，倫敦，2015年
Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 27th May 2014, lot 87.
11月5至27日，編號37

EXHIBITED
Ninety Jades for 90 Years, Marchant. London, 2015, cat. no. 37.
Deftly hewn from pure white stone, this rare pendant
was once part of a set of twelve related pieces – six of
the present shape and six of bell form – which could be
combined around a thirteenth panel carved with trigrams
and the ‘Heavenly Stems’ to represent a complete
sexagenary cycle. The present pendant is expertly engraved
with a characterful image of a humanoid dragon. This
depiction of an auspicious zodiacal creature in human form
comes to represent one year in a twelve year cycle, with the
character on the reverse, chen, representing the dragon’s
relative position as the fifth of the twelve Earthly Branches.
A similar complete set, in the Qing Court Collection
preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in
The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum.
Jade Ware (III), Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 20. This set is made
up of twelve closely related white pendants decorated with
auspicious floral motifs and corresponding poetic titles
surrounding a disc with the twelve notes of the Chinese scale
(shi’er lü). Compare also another set of twelve pendants
in the Palace Museum, six of similar form and six of axe
form, similarly depicting the twelve animals of the zodiac, in
Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum, Jade, vol.
9: Qing Dynasty, Beijing, 2011, pl. 258, which when separated
could be worn suspended from the belt.
A very small number of related Qianlong period zodiacal
pendants are known. Compare a related rectangular white
jade pendant featuring a humanoid ox and the character
chou, sold from the collection of Dizang Studio at Christie’s
London, 14th May 2019, lot 47; a circular pendant similarly
featuring a dragon and the character chen sold at Christie’s
London, 14th May 2013, lot 29; and another rectangular
example featuring a humanoid ram and the character wei
sold at Bonhams Hong Kong, 24th November 2012.
⊖ $ 60,000-80,000

404 SOTHEBY’S COMPLETE CATALOGUING AVAILABLE AT SOTHEBYS.COM/N11744 MARCHANT – CHINESE JADES 405