HOTUNG | 何東 The Personal Collection of the late Sir Joseph Hotung: Part 1 | Day

HOTUNG | 何東 The Personal Collection of the late Sir Joseph Hotung: Part 1 | Day

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 128. A white and russet jade 'bird' pebble, Song - Ming dynasty | 宋至明 白玉雕鳳鳥.

A white and russet jade 'bird' pebble, Song - Ming dynasty | 宋至明 白玉雕鳳鳥

Auction Closed

October 9, 07:30 AM GMT

Estimate

300,000 - 500,000 HKD

Lot Details

Description

A white and russet jade 'bird' pebble,

Song - Ming dynasty

宋至明 白玉雕鳳鳥


portrayed with its head turned backwards and two-clawed feet tucked underneath its body, depicted with a hooked beak and a bifurcated tail issuing from the mouth of another small animal, its stylised wings detailed with incised plumage and archaistic scrolls, pierced with an aperture


6.3 cm

Collection of Robert H. Ellsworth.

Eastern Pacific Co. (Hei Hung-Lu), Hong Kong, 3rd January 1986.


安思遠收藏

東泰商行（黑洪祿），香港，1986年1月3日

James C.Y. Watt, Chinese Jades from Han to Ch'ing, New York, 1980, cat. no. 78.

Chinese Jade Animals, Hong Kong, 1996, cat. no. 103.


屈志仁，《Chinese Jades from Han to Ch'ing》，紐約，1980年，編號78

《中國肖生玉雕》，香港，1996年，編號103

Carved from an irregular pebble as a charming bird with a gently turned head and tucked wings, complemented by archaistic scroll-patterned plumage, the present figure encapsulates the skills and imagination of Song dynasty jade artisans. Such representations of recumbent birds allowed the craftsmen to make full use of the contours of the jade pebbles to create whimsical forms with minimal waste. James C.Y. Watt suggests that the use of archaistic patterns on naturalistic animals, as seen on the present pebble, probably began from the Tang and continued to the end of the Ming dynasty with only minor stylistic modifications (op.cit., p. 94).