KANGXI PERIOD (1661-1722)

Yang Yuxuan was a native of Fujian province and one of the most admired soapstone carvers in the Kangxi period. The style of the present carving very closely relates to the finial of a seal carved by Yang Yuxyan in the Beijing Palace Museum (fig. 1), illustrated in Small Refined Articles of the Study, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Shanghai, 2009,no. 253, p. 257, and is undoubtedly by the same hand. The treatment of the head, the claws and the braided tail are all characteristic of Yuxuan’s animal sculptures. Another comparable tianhuang mythical beast by Yuxuan is in the Taipei Palace Museum, illustrated in A Garland of Treasures: Materpieces of Precious Crafts in the Museum Collection, Taipei, 2014, no. III-44, p.138. Compare also thetianhuang mythical beast signed Yuxuan sold in Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 7 October 2006, lot 916.