A carved white jade mountain Qing Dynasty, Early Qianlong period

carved from a pale celadon-white boulder of a fantastical mountain landscape, the far right of the scene carved with a scholar figure followed by a young acolyte carrying a wrapped 'qin' zither walking up a path towards a small bridge over a fast-flowing waterfall, before a flight of steep steps leading up to two small pavilions set on top of a precipitous cliff amidst a pair of cranes, the cliff grown with the 'Three Friends of Winter' issuing from various rocky outcrops and a small head of lingzhi fungus growing from a cavernous grotto, the reverse with a small reclining deer turning to look towards a sprig of lingzhi and a doe standing beneath a large peach tree laden with plump fruit, (stand)

Purchased in Paris c. 1985