MING DYNASTY OR EARLIER

Details

A RARE WHITE AND BROWN JADE RECUMBENT MYTHICAL BEAST, BIXIE
ming dynasty or earlier
Carved with hooved feet folded beneath the curved body with head turned sharply to the right, vapour issuing from its bared teeth and swirling onto its back where it supports a book, the head with two antlers above prominent brows and a square snout with long curling moustache, areas of scales incised on the body and the thick hairy tail against its haunch, the stone of even pale tone with extensive dark skin and associated natural flaws on the lower body
3in. (8cm.) wide

Provenance

John Sparks Ltd., 1955

Exhibited

Oriental Ceramic Society, London

Lot Essay

Current scholarship would seem to justify a date earlier than the one suggested here, if one accepts Chinese dating of animal carvings in jade. For example, a comparable dragon-headed tortoise was dated 'late Song - Yuan' when exhibited in the Hong Kong Museum of Art, Chinese Jade Carvings, Catalogue, 1983, no.146; it has a similar angularity, though not the contrasted inclusions within the stone which very often suggest a Yuan or early Ming date in small Daoist animal carvings.

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