A celadon and grey jade figure of a horse Ming dynasty | 明 灰青玉臥馬

Collection of Gerald Godfrey.

Christie’s Hong Kong, 30th October 1995, lot 864.

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香港佳士得1995年10月30日，編號864

The present lot represents some of the finest examples of large jade animal carvings originating from workshops at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

Dynamically modelled with its head raised and turned backwards, the jade horse is naturalistically carved with taut muscles and a pronounced spine, skillfully detailed with incised mane, tail and tufts of hair behind the hooves. 

The carving exemplifies the thriving artistic tradition of equine representations during this period, which strives to capture more than the mere physical likeness of subjects but to convey the creature's innate strength and its playful nature.

Jessica Rawson discusses a stylistically similar large grey-green jade horse, which she identifies as 17th century, in Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, pl. 26:20. Another comparable Ming dynasty jade horse from the John D. Rockefeller 3rd collection was illustrated in Handbook of the Mr and Mrs John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, New York, 1981, p. 57, top left.