FIVE SMALL JADE AND SOAPSTONE CARVINGS

JADE AND HARDSTONE CARVINGS PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF RENA G. SEGAL

Details

FIVE SMALL JADE AND SOAPSTONE CARVINGS
SONG/MING DYNASTY

Comprising a jade pendant formed by four entwined serpents, the softly polished stone of opaque buff color with some brown mottling and a small area of alteration from burial, Song/Ming Dynasty; a brown and olive-green jade tortoise carapace, Ming Dynasty; a softly polished, buff-colored soapstone figure of a crawling boy, Yuan/Early Ming Dynasty; a brown and olive-green jade figure of a tapir, possibly Ming Dynasty; and a mottled grayish-white and brown jade elephant draped with a fringed blanket, Late Ming/Early Qing Dynasty--1 3/8 to 2 3/8in. (3.5 and 5.7cm.) long (5)

Lot Essay

The format of the snake pendant suggests the saying, jiaojie sifang, "to have close ties all around." Other similar pendants of this form are in the Seattle Art Museum, illustrated by James Watt, Chinese Jades from the Collection of the Seattle Art Museum, 1989, no. 45, dated Song/Ming; in the collection of A.S. Reynolds and included in the O.C.S. exhibition, Chinese Ivories from the Shang to the Qing, British Museum, May 24-August 19, 1984, nos. 273 (ivory) and 274 (jade), also dated Song/Ming; and a Qing example in white jade from the Collection of Sze Tak Tang was included in the exhibition, Chinese Jade Carving, Hong Kong Museum of Art, October 21-December 24,1983, no. 287