Asaph Hyman
Global Head of Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art
The Property of a lady
Lot 26*
A large pale green jade horse 17th/18th century
11 November 2010, 10:30 GMT
London, New Bond StreetSold for £50,400 inc. premium
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A large pale green jade horse
17th/18th century
The powerful recumbent animal carved with its head turned towards the back, the head with flared nostrils and bulging eyes, below the ears and flowing incised mane, the tail resting along the left flank, the right foreleg raised and the others tucked underneath, the stone of pale green tone with a black and russet area on the right flank, wood stand.
15.7cm (6⅛in) wide (2).
The powerful recumbent animal carved with its head turned towards the back, the head with flared nostrils and bulging eyes, below the ears and flowing incised mane, the tail resting along the left flank, the right foreleg raised and the others tucked underneath, the stone of pale green tone with a black and russet area on the right flank, wood stand.
15.7cm (6⅛in) wide (2).
Footnotes
Provenance: acquired in Beijing between 1950 and 1953
The property of the Honourable Franca Arena A.M. (Order of Australia)
The present horse belongs to a group of relatively large, naturalistically-carved recumbent horses in jade, each depicted with their heads turned backwards. A stylistically similar horse in the British Museum is dated to the 17th century, illustrated by J.Rawson, Chinese Jade From the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, pl.26:20, where the author discusses that this group most probably dates to the transitional period. See also a brown and grey jade example, dated to the Ming dynasty, from the Gerald Godfrey Collection, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 30 October 1995, lot 864. However, their popularity appears to have extended right through to the mid-Qing period, as evidenced by one example in the Imperial collection bearing a Qianlong seal mark, illustrated by Liu Yang, Translucent World. Chinese jade from the Forbidden City, Sydney, 2007, Catalogue no.147.
