CHINA, 17TH CENTURY

Details

A PALE GREENISH WHITE JADE BIXI-FORM WATER DROPPER
CHINA, 17TH CENTURY
The mythical beast shown in a crouching position with an ear-cup projecting from the mouth below a tiny hole, carved with curved horns that sweep back to flank the opening in the back, and with scrolls on the haunches and a bifurcated tail, the underside of the belly carved with an archaistic dragon, the stone of pale greenish white tone with a few natural dark fissures and minor opaque white inclusions
5 ¼ in. (13.3 cm.) long

Provenance

Roger Keverne, London, 2000.
The Irving Collection, no. 270.

Literature

Roger Keverne, Fine and Rare Chinese Works of Art and Ceramics - Winter Exhibition, London, 2000, p. 60, no. 82.

Exhibited

London, Roger Keverne, Fine and Rare Chinese Works of Art and Ceramics - Winter Exhibition, November 2000.

Lot Essay

A similar jade bixi-form water pot, also with an ear-cup extending from the mouth of the beast, that still retains the removable water dropper, in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, dated to the seventeenth century, late Ming to early Qing period, is illustrated in Through the Prism of the Past: Antiquarian Trends in Chinese Art of the 16th to 18th century, Taipei, 2003, p. 47, pl. I-21. See, also, another bixi-form greenish white jade water pot of this type sold at Christie's, New York, 22-23 March 2012, lot 1986.

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