Page 181 - CHRISTIE'S Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art 09/14 - 15 / 17

(detail)

1014
A WHITE JADE HAIR PIN

MING DYNASTY (1368-1644)
The hair pin tapers from the openwork end which is fnely carved with two
birds amidst prunus branches and bamboo below a prunus blossom in
the center.
5√ in. (14.9 cm.) long

$5,000-7,000

Compare to a similar hairpin in the standard late Ming form, illustrated by
James Watt, Chinese Jades from the Collection of the Seattle Art Museum,
Seattle, 1989, no. 53, where the author notes that the famous jade carver, Lu
Zigang, of Suzhou, who was active during the second half of the sixteenth
century, carved hairpins in a similar openwork style. See, also, another hairpin
included in the exhibition 5,000 Years of Chinese Jade, San Antonio Museum
of Art, 1 October 2011-19 February 2012, and illustrated in the Catalogue, p.
122, no. 85, where it is noted that “jade hairpins were fashionable in the Ming
dynasty and were an adornment limited to the elite”.
明 白玉鏤雕喜上眉梢簪

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