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Lot Essay
The current jade sculpture represents the finest of early Qing jade carving with impeccable technique combined with excellent material, in this case a prized and unusually large river-pebble, or ziyu (籽玉, seed jade) in jade collectors’ colloquial. The sculpture is skillfully carved with a well-balanced design, showing the two animals and their attributes interact and correspond to each other. The russet ‘skin’ of the pebble has been imaginatively incorporated in the carving to denote the fringe of foam around the breaking waves, and, serendipitously, as one eye of the horse. The exquisite carving indicates that it was probably produced for the Court, or in any case for an extremely wealthy member of the elite class. The carving style also suggests that it was probably carved in Suzhou, or by a Suzhou-trained carver working in the Palace Workshops. This type of objects were often made as accoutrements for a scholar’s studio, perhaps originally as paper-weights or brush-rests. By the Qing dynasty, however, they were often appreciated as works of art in their own right, and elevated, both physically and aesthetically, by beautifully carved wood stands.
The subject matter of the current jade is rooted in ancient Chinese culture, concerning two mythical documents He Tu (Yellow River Diagram) and Luo Shu (Luo River Chart). He Tu allegedly appeared on the back of a dragon-horse emerging from the Yellow River; while Luo Shu was carried by a mythical tortoise found in the Luo River. They were discovered by Fu Xi, the pre-historical sage-king, who supposedly developed the Trigram system based on He Tu. The content of Luo Shu was suggested to be the 3 x 3 Magic Square, a mathematical novelty. The dragon horse is a mythical animal supposedly born from the coupling of a dragon and a mare. It has a horse body covered in dragon scales, as is faithfully depicted on the current jade. The appearance of the tortoise is based on bixi – one of the nine offspring of the dragon, and is depicted as a dragon with the shell of a tortoise.
The subject matter of the current jade is rooted in ancient Chinese culture, concerning two mythical documents He Tu (Yellow River Diagram) and Luo Shu (Luo River Chart). He Tu allegedly appeared on the back of a dragon-horse emerging from the Yellow River; while Luo Shu was carried by a mythical tortoise found in the Luo River. They were discovered by Fu Xi, the pre-historical sage-king, who supposedly developed the Trigram system based on He Tu. The content of Luo Shu was suggested to be the 3 x 3 Magic Square, a mathematical novelty. The dragon horse is a mythical animal supposedly born from the coupling of a dragon and a mare. It has a horse body covered in dragon scales, as is faithfully depicted on the current jade. The appearance of the tortoise is based on bixi – one of the nine offspring of the dragon, and is depicted as a dragon with the shell of a tortoise.