A CELADON AND RUSSET JADE 'PARROT AND PEACH' GROUP 17TH CENTURY

deftly carved as a small parrot, with its wings outstretched clutching a branch bearing a large peach with leaves, the wings and tail feathers finely incised, the stone of an even celadon color with russet highlights

The motif of a parrot holding a peach is derived from Song and Yuan period examples. See, for example, the Song prototype from the Guanfu collection illustrated in James C.Y Watt, Chinese Jades from Han to Ch'ing, Asia House Gallery, New York, 1980, cat. no. 80. For a closely related bird and peach carving dated to the Ming dynasty, see one formerly in the Desmond Gure collection and included in the exhibition Chinese Jade Animals, Hong Kong, 1996, cat. no. 162.