A MOTTLED JADE FIGURE OF A MYTHICAL CREATURE MING DYNASTY OR EARLIER | 明或以前 玉握珠神獸
Auction Closed
November 6, 06:16 PM GMT
Estimate
6,000 - 8,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
ARCHAIC AND ARCHAISTIC JADES FROM THE MICHAEL GULBENKIAN COLLECTION
MICHAEL GULBENKIAN玉器收藏
A MOTTLED JADE FIGURE OF A MYTHICAL CREATURE
MING DYNASTY OR EARLIER
明或以前 玉握珠神獸
the creature depicted sitting upright, the left hand holding a rosary and the right hand grasping a lotus bud, with two long horns and a long beard, pierced vertically from the top of the head to the feet, the brown stone suffused with russet and grey streaks
Height 4.5 cm, 1¾ in.
Desmund Gure Collection (1906-1970) (according to label).
The Kirknorton Collection.
Carter Fine Art Ltd., London.
Desmund Gure（1906-1970年）收藏（標簽）
Kirknorton收藏
Carter Fine Art Ltd.， 倫敦
Brian Morgan and Li Boqian, Naturalism & Archaism: Chinese Jades from the Kirknorton Collection, London, 1995, pl. 9.
Naturalism & Archaism: Chinese Jades from the Kirknorton Collection，倫敦，1995年，圖版9
This small figure belongs to a small group of strange mythical creatures carved in the round in the same distinctive posture, all with horns and long triangular beards holding a rosary in one hand. The dating of these ranges from the Six Dynasties Period to the Ming Dynasty. A mottled brown and grey jade figure of a 'squatting monster' dated to the Six Dynasties period is published in Rene-Yvon Lefebvre d'Argence, Chinese Jades in the Avery Brundage Collection, San Francisco, 1977, p. 68, pl. XXVII. Compare also with a very similar figure of a seated mythical creature from the collection of Gerald Godfrey, sold in Christie's Hong Kong, 30th October 1995, lot 863. A third figure from this group dated to the Ming Dynasty, is illustrated in Chinese Jade Animals, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1996, cat. no. 146.