Page 163 - Bonhams Asian Art London November 5, 2020

Apsaras are female spirits of the clouds and waters in Hindu and
Buddhist culture. They are often depicted as flying figures in the mural
paintings and sculptures of Buddhist cave sites in China such as
in the Mogao Caves, Yulin Caves, and the Yungang and Longmen
Grottoes, but are also frequently depicted in jade carvings as well.
See the cave paintings in cave 285 at Dunhuang in Gansu Province.
See also a wall painting from Ming-oi in Xinjiang Province, 8th-9th
century, in the British Museum, illustrated by J.Rawson, Chinese Jades
from the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, p.333. fig.1. Apsara
representations in jade became popular during the Tang dynasty; see
three examples of white jade apsaras in the Palace Museum, Beijing,
illustrated by Yang Boda, Zhongguo Yuqi Quanji, Shijiazhuang, 2005,
pp.421-422, nos.1-3. This style continued during the Song and
Ming dynasties; compare with a closely related white jade immortal
seated on a phoenix, Song dynasty, illustrated in the Compendium
of Collections in the Palace Museum: Jade 5 Tang, Song, Liao, Jin
and Yuan Dynasties, Beijing, 2011, p.112, no.118; compare also with
another similar white jade apsara, Ming dynasty, excavated in 1962
from a tomb of one of the Qianlong emperor’s sons, in the Capital
Museum, Beijing, illustrated by Yu Ping, ed. Gems of Beijing Cultural
Relics Series: Jades, Beijing, 2002, no.152. Compare with a related
white jade carving of an apsara, Ming dynasty or earlier, which was
sold at Christie’s London, 13 May 2014, lot 17.

153
A FINE WHITE AND GREY JADE CARVING OF A BOY ON
HOBBY-HORSE
17th/18th century
Deftly carved as a standing boy with finely incised patch of hair atop 152
his pate, carrying a spray of lotus in his right hand extending over his
back, his left hand holding the reins of a hobby-horse between his
legs, the stone of pale white tone with a grey patch.
8.5cm (3 3/8in) high.
£8,000 - 12,000
CNY70,000 - 110,000

十七/十八世紀 白玉雕騎竹馬童子擺件

Provenance: Gerard Arnhold (1918-2010)

Born in 1918 in Dresden, Germany, Gerard Arnhold was from a
well-known family of Jewish philanthropists. His family left Germany
in 1936, after the Nazis came to power and seized their assets. He
served in the British Army during the Second World War, before
starting a successful technology company in Brazil. He and his family
supported rebuilding efforts in Germany and many charitable causes,
always working anonymously. Arnhold was also a generous supporter
of the Durham Oriental Museum for many years.

來源：Gerard Arnhold（1918-2010）舊藏

Gerard Arnhold，1918年出生於德國德累斯頓的著名猶太慈善家族。
1936年，在納粹上台並沒收其家族財產後，全家離開德國。他曾於
第二次世界大戰期間效力於英軍，之後在巴西成功創立了一家科技公
司。二戰後，Gerard及其家人長期匿名支持德國重建工作及其他慈善
事業，他也是達勒姆東方博物館的長期捐贈者。

Images of boys playing with a hobby horse form part of the popular
‘boys at play’ and ‘Hundred Boys’ subjects that emerged during
the Song dynasty. This theme is symbolic of the Confucian ideal
for the education and advancement of many sons, a wish further
emphasised by the lotus (lian 蓮) he carries which is a homophone
of ‘continuous’ (lian 連) and creates the rebus ‘May you continuously
give birth to sons’. As the boy is depicted riding a hobby-horse, this
conveys the further wish for it to come quickly as ‘to be on top of a
horse’ (mashang 馬上) means ‘immediately’. Compare with a similarly
finely-carved figure, but holding a rattle instead of a lotus stem, in the
Museum of East Asian Art, Bath, (museum no.BATEA 1218); and a
related figure of a boy holding a lantern on a pole, from the collection
of Florence and Herbert Irving and now in the Metropolitan Museum,
New York (acc.no.2015.500.5.14). 153

For details of the charges payable in addition to the final Hammer Price of each Lot
please refer to paragraphs 7 & 8 of the Notice to Bidders at the back of the catalogue. FINE CHINESE ART | 161