Page 60 - Chinese Art From Two American Collections, April 5, 2017 Hong Kong
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A LARGE CELADON JADE FIGURE OF A 十七世紀 青玉臥牛
RECUMBENT WATER BUFFALO
17TH CENTURY 來源：
Mary Anna Marten 夫人 OBE（1929-2010年）收藏，科
substantially worked in the form of a recumbent water buffalo 瑞切爾莊園，多塞特郡，購於1953年以前
with its head turned to the left and resting on its left foreleg, 英國威力士2010年11月17日，編號341
the head sensitively rendered with flaring nostrils and alert
eyes, crowned with a pair of long curved striated horns, the 展覽：
forehead with a small tuft of hair depicted with fine incisions, 《Chinese Jade Throughout the Ages》，維多利亞與艾
the body prominently accentuated with taut muscles and 伯特博物館，倫敦，1975年，編號396
a curved spine terminating in a tail sweeping over its hind
haunch, the pale celadon stone mottled with white and grey
inclusions
29.9 cm, 11¾ in.
PROVENANCE
Collection of the Hon. Mrs Mary Anna Marten OBE (1929-
2010), Crichel House, Dorset, purchased prior to 1953.
Woolley and Wallis, Salisbury, 17th November 2010, lot 341.
EXHIBITED
Chinese Jade Throughout the Ages, Victoria and Albert
Museum, London, 1975, cat. no. 396.
HK$ 8,000,000-10,000,000
US$ 1,040,000-1,290,000
This sensitively rendered water buffalo is outstanding in its this and similar buffaloes, distinctly coloured and veined, fits
workmanship and unique for the rendering of wrinkled skin best with a late Ming (1368-1644) date, while the masculine
on the creature’s body and forehead, to suggest age and its strength, elegance and simplicity of the sculpting are also in
associated traits of experience and wisdom. The large boulder tune with stylistic principles of the Kangxi reign (1662-1722).
has been impressively transformed into a handsome buffalo
with broad confident features and monumental reclining body Comparable carvings of buffaloes from prestigious collections
to encapsulate its proverbial power and gentleness, qualities of the past include two now in the Woolf Charitable Trust,
further evoked by the solid curves of the muscular body. published in The Woolf Collection of Chinese Jade, London,
2013, pls 99 and 100; the Jacob Goldschmidt buffalo, included
Water buffaloes were revered from early on in Chinese history in the exhibition Ausstellung Chinesischer Kunst, Gesellschaft
and were much used in agriculture, as their wide-splayed für Ostasiatische Kunst und Preussische Akademie der Künste,
hoofed feet prevented them from sinking too deeply into Berlin, 1929, cat. no. 1085, and the Baron Lionel de Rothschild
wet earth and allowed them to plough through wetlands and buffalo, formerly in the collection of Somerset de Chair, later
swamps. Their bucolic character evoked the simple essence in the Eckstein Collection, sold twice in our London rooms,
of life in the countryside and escape from the duties and 19th April 1937, lot 47, and 9th December 1948, lot 111. See
responsibilities of office. also the Oscar Raphael buffalo, from the Fitzwilliam Museum,
Cambridge, illustrated in James C.S. Lin, The Immortal Stone,
A popular subject in Chinese painting, water buffaloes were Cambridge, 2009, pl. 36; the Alexander Ionides buffalo, later
depicted in a variety of media since ancient times, including in the Hotchis Collection, sold in our London rooms, 20th
bronze and jade. One of the earliest surviving jade examples is May 1954, lot 101; and another from the Mrs James Cromwell
a small figure depicting a reclining and forward-facing animal, Collection, sold at Christie’s New York, 30th November 1983,
attributed to the late Shang dynasty (13th-11th centuries BC), lot 275, and again, 19th March 2008, lot 436, from the estate
in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, accession. no. of Leona M. Helmsley; and the much smaller spinach-green
1976.297.2. Pelham water buffalo, sold at Woolley and Wallis, Salisbury,
20th May 2009, lot 388.
The dating of the group of large and impressively rendered
jade sculptures, to which the present animal belongs, has been Similar carvings fashioned from grey and black jade stones
much discussed. The characteristic choice of material for include one from the Somerset de Chair and Mrs Parsons
58 SOTHEBY’S 蘇富比
