Page 27 - 2021 March 15th Fine Chinese Paintings and Works of Art, Bonhams NYC New York

PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF ROBERT P. YOUNGMAN
20 Provenance
A CELADON JADE ‘PHOENIX’ CARVING The Peking Gallery, Toronto, Canada, 11th February 1974
17th/18th Century Robert P. Youngman
Finely carved in the form of a recumbent phoenix, the long curling Sotheby’s, New York, The Robert Youngman Collection of Chinese
crest feathers extending down the neck, the head turned over its back, Jade, 19 March 2019, lot 213
grasping a branch bearing two ripe peaches in its beak, the upper
wings each decorated in low-relief with a scrolling archaistic dragon 來源
above the long pointed pennaceous feathers, the tips resting on base The Peking Gallery，加拿大多倫多，1974年2月11日
of the curling tail feathers, the underside carved with the tucked legs, 羅伯特．楊門珍藏
the whole comforming to the outline of the pebble, the pale green 蘇富比香港，楊門中國玉器珍藏，2019年4月3日，拍品編號213
stone with a lustrous finish and opaque white inclusions.
4 3/8in (11.1cm) long A similar 17th/18th century carving of a phoenix grasping a peach
branch from the Robert Hatfield Ellsworth Collection was sold at
$3,000 - 5,000 Christie’s, New York, 19th March 2015, lot 622, having previously been
sold at Sotheby’s, Hong Kong, 20 May 1981, lot 888. A related Ming
十七/十八世紀 青玉雕臥鳳獻桃把件 dynasty carving of a phoenix grasping bamboo in its beak was sold
in Sotheby’s, New York, 22 April 1974, lot 19. Another 17 century
th
example, carved as a water-dropper, was sold at Sotheby’s, London,
‘Menagerie, An English Private Collection of Chinese Animal
Carvings’, 10 May 2017, lot 6

For two phoenix carvings dating to the Qianlong period and carved in
a more fastidious fashion with a more regimented design rather than
the freedom of our slightly earlier example, see Robert Kleiner, Chinese
Jades from the Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, Hong Kong,
1996, p.250 and p.252, no’s 199 and 201. The first of these, no.199,
was later sold at Sotheby’s, Hong Kong, 8 October 201,9, lot 3666.

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