A finely carved tianhuang 'goat' seal, by Yang Yuxuan 17th century

of square section forming a pedestal for a reclining goat, its details precisely carved, portrayed curled up with its head turned left, its bearded face surmounted by a long curled horn, the wavy curls of the beast's thick mane and tail delicately picked out in fine incised lines, one side inscribed by the artist Yu Xuan, the seal left uncut without a seal impression, the stone predominantly of an intense transluscent yellow-orange tone with russet inclusions

An important private collection formed around the late 19th/early 20th century.

The exceptional richness and translucency of the stone, the characteristic quality and naturalistic style of the carving, as well as the typical two-character signature in running script lend credence to the Yang Yuxuan attribution.  For a similar signature, compare a tianhuang figure of a seated Budai sold in these rooms, 28th April 1998, lot 899. 

For the style of carving, compare a tianhuang paperweight in the shape of a recumbent ram in the Shanghai Museum, also signed Yuxuan, very similarly carved in The Chinese Scholar's Studio - Artistic Life in the Late Ming Period, The Asia Society Galleries, New York, 1987.

Yang Yuxuan was an outstanding carver active during the mid-17th century.  Yang came from Zhanpu  in Fujian province, and lived most of his life in Fuzhou.  In the District Gazetteer of the area compiled in the Kangxi period, it is noted that "All his figures, birds and animals and his vessels are exquisite in the extreme.  Collectors compete to engage him." For a discussion of Yang Yuxuan's work, see Hugh Moss, Arts from the Scholar's Studio, The University of Hong Kong, 1986, cat.no. 45.