Page 16 - 2021 March 15th Fine Chinese Paintings and Works of Art, Bonhams NYC New York

PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF ROBERT P. YOUNGMAN For a very similar jade bear formerly in the Rafi Y. Mottahedeh
Collection and dated to the Shang dynasty, see Sotheby’s, New York,
9 4 November 1978, lot 162. Similarly positioned, it too had a small hole
drilled to the back of the head. It had previously been published and
AN OLIVE-GREEN, BEIGE AND RUSSET JADE FIGURE OF A exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum in the ground-breaking
CROUCHING BEAR
Shang Dynasty (circa. 1600-1100 BCE) jade retrospective Chinese Jade Throughout the Ages May-June,
The bear seated on its rear haunches in a crouching position with 1975, p. 35, no. 44. It was also published by S.H. Hansford, Chinese
forelegs resting on the knees of the drawn-in rear legs, the bears large Jade Carving, London and Bradford, 1950, pl. XXVa. and again in
head with wide mouth resting on the forelegs, the eyes cut in low- Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, 1973-74/1974-75,
relief below simple rounded ears, the rounded body cut with ridged London, 1976, (a special edition for the Victoria and Albert Museum
channels of scrolls, a short hole drilled to the back of the head. Exhibiton), p. 35, no. 44, where its owner is listed as Mr John M
1 5/8in (4.2cm) high Crawford Jr.

Two jade bears from a Western Zhou Dynasty tomb of the Marquis of
$30,000 - 50,000 Jin and his wife in Shanxi province are illustrated in Zhongguo chutu
yuqi quanji, vol. 3, pls. 125 and 126. See also a similar jade crouching
商 玉熊 bear from the M. Calmann Collection, Paris, illustrated in International
Exhibition of Chinese Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1935-36,
Provenance no. 283.
Sotheby’s, Hong Kong, The Robert Youngman Collection of Chinese
Jade, 3 April 2019, lot 3419 See the Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, 1973/1974, Volume
Alvin Lo Oriental Art Ltd., New York XXXII, No. 2 in an article by Maxwell Hearn and Wen Fong entitled
‘The Arts of China, The Age of Ritual: The Shang Dynasty’ for
Published a depiction of a marble bear (4 1/2 inches high) in a very similar
Robert P. Youngman, The Youngman Collection of Chinese Jades from crouching pose, though devoid of surface decoration and dated to
the Neolithic to Qing, Chicago, 2008, pl. 32 the 13th - 11th Century BCE (Illustration no. 7).

For a Shang dynasty buffalo also carved in the round, using a similar
來源 jade material and with related relief scroll decoration, see Max Loehr,
蘇富比香港，楊門中國玉器珍藏，2019年4月3日，拍品編號3419 Ancient Chinese Jades from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection in the
Alvin Lo Oriental Art Ltd., 紐約 Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Massachusetts, 1975, p. 123,
no. 148. Later in the same publication, a crouching bear is illustrated
出版 that entered the Collection in 1943 that is dated to ‘probably’ the
羅伯特．楊門，《楊門藏玉：中國玉器．新石器時代至清代》，芝加 Western Zhou period. It too bears close comparison.
哥，2008年，圖版32
For other small figural jade carvings of similar size, format and
decoration, see China: 5,000 Years: Innovation and Transformation in
the Arts, Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1998, p. 208, no. 10 (1 &
2) both unearthed in 1976 from Fu Hao tomb No. 5, Anyang, Henan
province and now in the Henan Provincial Museum, Zhengzhou.

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