Live Auction 1119Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art
A FINELY CARVED WHITE JADE QILIN
Lot 68

A FINELY CARVED WHITE JADE QILIN

QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)

Closed14 May 2013

Price Realised

GBP 115,875

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A FINELY CARVED WHITE JADE QILIN
QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)
The recumbent qilin is carved with the head turned towards its spine and the legs neatly tucked under its body, with its back supporting a pile of books. The stone is of an extremely even pale tone.
3½ in. (9 cm.) long

A private English collection, acquired in Hong Kong in the 1950s.

Specialist note

The auspicious image of a qilin bearing books is a reference to the legend of the birth of Confucious, according to which a qilin with books on its back announced Confucious as a king without crown in the Zhou dynasty. See a very similar example of a jade qilin carrying books on its back in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Jadeware (III), Hong Kong, 1995, p. 114, pl. 94.