Page 134 - Sotheby's May 10th 2017 London Animal Menagerie, Chinese Art
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A FINE ARCHAISTIC WHITE A WHITE JADE GOLDFISH A WHITE JADE CRAB
QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG QING DYNASTY, 19TH
JADE ‘DOUBLE PHOENIX’ PERIOD CENTURY
PLAQUE Compare a jade fish in the Rietberg Museum, Zurich, A slightly larger white and brown jade crab, attributed
illustrated in Marie-Fleur Burkart-Bauer, Chinesische to the Ming dynasty, in the National Palace Museum,
QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG Jaden aus drei Jahrtausenden, Zurich, 1986, pl. 190. Taipei, was included in the Museum’s exhibition
Masterworks of Chinese Jade in the National Palace
PERIOD 20 Museum, 1973, cat. no. 24; and a grey and pale beige
crab holding ears of corn, attributed to the late Ming
The form of this plaque was inspired by jade double-bird A MELON-GREEN JADE or early Qing period, was included in the exhibition
pendants from the Eastern Zhou period (770-256 BC), ‘DRAGON CARP’ GROUP Chinese Jade Carving, Hong Kong Museum of Art,
such as one in the British Museum, London, illustrated QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG Hong Kong, 1983, cat. no. 190.
in Jessica Rawson, Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the PERIOD
Qing, London, 1995, pl. 17:15, where the author notes 24
that the beaked creatures depicted ‘were probably derived
from the strange creatures introduced to the Chinese AN AGATE ‘TWIN FISH’
decorative repertoire in the sixth and fifth centuries BC, CARVING
perhaps from Western Asia’, pp. 273-4. QING DYNASTY, 19TH
CENTURY
13 This dynamic carving captures the moment a carp has
successfully swum against the current of the Yellow Compare similarly carved jade versions of two catfish,
A WHITE AND RUSSET JADE River and leaped up at the Dragon Gate to transform such as one in the National Palace Museum, Taipei,
‘PHOENIX AND PEACH’ GROUP into a powerful dragon. The transformation of the carp included in the Museum’s exhibition Auspicious Ju-i
QING DYNASTY, 18TH can be seen to be taking place; the continuous narrative Scepters of China, Taipei, 1995, cat. no. 80; one exhibited
CENTURY is represented through the depiction of the dragon with in Chinese Jades from Han to Ch’ing, Asia House Gallery,
gills that are still to form into claws. New York, 1980, cat. no. 91; and another included in
A similar jade phoenix is illustrated in Brian Morgan, the Min Chiu Society exhibition Chinese Jade Carving,
Dr Newton’s Zoo: A Study of Post-Archaic Small Jade Compare related depictions of this theme, such as a Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1983, cat.
Carvings, London, 1981, pl. 96. spinach-green jade vase with conjoined dragon-fish, in no. 194.
the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete
14 Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Jadeware 25
(III), Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 49; one, but with the
A WHITE JADE PHOENIX smaller fish at the base of the larger one, in the National A WHITE JADE MYTHICAL
QING DYNASTY, 18TH Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the exhibition BEAST
CENTURY Treasured Masterpieces from the National Palace Museum QING DYNASTY, 18TH
Taipei, Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, 2014, cat. no. CENTURY
A slightly larger jade phoenix grasping a peach spray in 194; and another sold in these rooms, 7th June 1967,
its beak, was included in the exhibition Jades from China, lot 332. Finely carved in the round, this piece is notable for its
The Museum of East Asian Art, Bath, 1994, cat. no. sense of playfulness which is captured in the beast’s
337; and a white and russet jade version, with the bird 22 facial expression and pose, and accentuated by its large
grasping a lingzhi and peach spray in its beak, from paws and curly locks of fur. Small animal carvings of
the Brian S. McElney collection, was included in the A WHITE AND RUSSET JADE this type were highly appreciated by the literati who
exhibition Chinese Jade: Stone for the Emperors, Art Gallery ‘TWIN FISH’ GROUP considered them both as utilitarian paperweights and as
of Greater Victoria, Victoria, 1986, cat. no. XXV. QING DYNASTY, 18TH objects of aesthetic pleasure.
CENTURY
15 A jade mythological beast is illustrated in Thomas Fok,
A jade double-fish pendant in the Pacific Asia Museum, The Splendour of Jade. The Songzhutang Collection of Jade,
A BAMBOO-ROOT ‘TOAD’ Pasadena, is illustrated in Richard E. Strassberg and Hong Kong, 2011, pl. 124; a larger example was sold
CARVING Suzanne Haney Foster, Chinese Jade. The Image from in these rooms, 30th March 2005, lot 111; and another
QING DYNASTY, 18TH Within, Pasadena, 1986, pl. 169. See also a carving was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 27th May 2008, lot
CENTURY in the form of a carp with a smaller fish at its side, 1954.
included in the exhibition Exquisite Jade Carving, Art
Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong
Kong, 1996, cat. no. 99.
A slightly smaller carving of a toad inscribed with the
characters zhuyin and attributed to the sixteenth century,
was included in the Min Chiu Society exhibition The
Radiant Ming 1368–1644, Hong Kong Museum of
History, Hong Kong, 2015, cat. no. 188.
132 SOTHEBY’S
