AN EXCEPTIONAL YELLOW JADE FIGURE OF A RECUMBENT HOUND
AN EXCEPTIONAL YELLOW JADE FIGURE OF A RECUMBENT HOUND
AN EXCEPTIONAL YELLOW JADE FIGURE OF A RECUMBENT HOUND
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AN EXCEPTIONAL YELLOW JADE FIGURE OF A RECUMBENT HOUND

SOUTHERN SONG-EARLY MING DYNASTY, 12TH-15TH CENTURY

Details
AN EXCEPTIONAL YELLOW JADE FIGURE OF A RECUMBENT HOUND
SOUTHERN SONG-EARLY MING DYNASTY, 12TH-15TH CENTURY
The hound is shown with the head resting on the front paws, wearing a collar suspending a bell, the long tail coiled on the left haunch, and the ribs and knobby spine clearly delineated. The stone is of an even yellow tone with a few patches of russet on the haunches and underside.
3 ¼ in. (8.3 cm.) long
Provenance
The Rt. Hon. Lord Cunliffe (1899-1963) Collection, Suffolk, England.
Joan Barrow Collection, Malvem, England.
Hugh Moss, Hong Kong.
Mary and George Bloch Collection, Hong Kong.
Scholarly Works of Art from the Mary and George Bloch Collection; Sotheby's Hong Kong, 23 October 2005, lot 20.
The LJZ Collection, United States.
Literature
Bluett & Sons Ltd., Early Chinese Art from the Cunliffe Collection, London, 1973, pl. XXXIV, no. 106.
J. Ayers and J. Rawson, "Chinese Jade throughout the Ages," Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, London, vol. 40, 1975, no. 251.
Bluett & Sons Ltd., Dr Newton's Zoo, London, 1981, p. 19, no. 22.
A. Carter, The LJZ Collection of Chinese Jades, London, 2022, pp. 34-35, no. 12.
Exhibited
London, Bluett & Sons Ltd., Early Chinese Art from the Cunliffe Collection, 27 September-19 October 1973.
London, Victoria & Albert Museum, Chinese Jade throughout the Ages, 1 May-22 June 1975.
London, Bluett & Sons Ltd., Dr Newton's Zoo, 13-24 July 1981.

Brought to you by

Vicki Paloympis (潘薇琦)
Vicki Paloympis (潘薇琦) Head of Department, VP, Specialist

Lot Essay

Small jade figures of recumbent hounds of this type are variously shown with their heads resting on or just above their outstretched forelegs, raised alertly or turned to the side. The bodies of these figures are slender, the knobby backbones well defined and the long tails usually coiled on one haunch. They have variously been dated anywhere from the Tang to the Ming dynasty, the earlier dating originally based on the inclusion of pottery figures of hounds in Tang-dynasty tombs. Such a relationship was made by Desmond Gure in his discussion of a yellow jade hound in his collection illustrated by Gure in “Selected Examples from the Jade Exhibition at Stockholm, 1963; A Comparative Study”, B.M.F.E.A., no. 36, Stockholm, 1964, pl. 25, figs. 1 and 2, where the yellow jade figure, fig. 1, is shown with a Sui-dynasty pottery figure of a hound, fig. 2. Each has a raised head pointing forward above the out-stretched forelegs, and has similar long ears. Unlike the pottery hound the jade hound wears a collar suspending a bell, a feature seen on the present figure. This same figure was included in the exhibition, Chinese Jade Animals, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1996, no. 75, where it was dated Tang-Song dynasty. Three other related figures were included in that exhibition, no. 68, dated Tang and carved in a position similar to the present figure, and nos. 98 and 99, dated Song, each with its head turned to the side. For another figure shown in a similar position see the hound illustrated by Jessica Rawson, Chinese Jade throughout the ages, Victoria and Albert Museum, T.O.C.S., vol. 40, 1973-75, no. 245, where it is dated Tang or early Song.

Two other comparable jade figures of hounds are illustrated by James C. Y. Watt, Chinese Jades from the Han to Ch’ing, The Asia Society, 1980, one of greyish-black color from the Guan-fu Collection, dated Tang, no. 37, and a white jade example, dated Song, from the Robert H. Ellsworth Collection, no. 38.

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