AN UNUSUAL WHITE JADE BOY AND 'DRAGON/CARP' GROUP

18TH CENTURY

Details

AN UNUSUAL WHITE JADE BOY AND 'DRAGON/CARP' GROUP
18TH CENTURY
Well carved as a boy holding a flowering and budding peony stem over his shoulder with his right hand while his left hand grasps the horn of the dragon/carp he is riding atop wind-tossed waves, with a three-legged toad emerging from the waves on the reverse, the white stone with some areas of pale russet color
5 1/8 in. (13 cm.) long, wood stand, box

Provenance

Sotheby's, New York, 8 April 1988, lot 178.
Christie's, Hong Kong, Important Chinese Jades from the Personal Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, 28 November 2006, lot 1413.

Literature

R. Kleiner, Chinese Jades from the Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, Hong Kong, 1996, no. 171.

Exhibited

Christie's, New York, 13 - 26 March 2001.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, August 2003 - December 2004.

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Lot Essay

The dragon-carp, ao, represents literary success, while the peony symbolizes wealth. The three-legged toad, the companion of Liu Hai, also symbolizes wealth. Together these elements form the rebus liansheng guizi, which is a wish that the recipient will have a succession of wealthy and intelligent sons.

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