Lot 801
801
A VERY RARE AND IMPORTANT PALE GREENISH-WHITE AND GREY JADE FIGURE OF A RECUMBENT BIRD
A VERY RARE AND IMPORTANT PALE GREENISH-WHITE AND GREY JADE FIGURE OF A RECUMBENT BIRD
A VERY RARE AND IMPORTANT PALE GREENISH-WHITE AND GREY JADE FIGURE OF A RECUMBENT BIRD
A VERY RARE AND IMPORTANT PALE GREENISH-WHITE AND GREY JADE FIGURE OF A RECUMBENT BIRD
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A VERY RARE AND IMPORTANT PALE GREENISH-WHITE AND GREY JADE FIGURE OF A RECUMBENT BIRD

HAN DYNASTY (206 BC-AD 220)

Details
A VERY RARE AND IMPORTANT PALE GREENISH-WHITE AND GREY JADE FIGURE OF A RECUMBENT BIRD
HAN DYNASTY (206 BC-AD 220)
The bird with trefoil crest and curved beak is shown in a recumbent position, with the tail feathers neatly fanned and the legs tucked beneath the body. The pale greenish-white stone has patches of grey and some veining.
3 3/8 in. (8.6 cm.) long
Provenance
Chung Wah Pui, The Hei-Chi Collection, Hong Kong, by 1996.
Anthony Carter, London, 5 January 2007.
The LJZ Collection, United States.
Literature
Hong Kong Museum of Art, Chinese Jade Animals, Hong Kong, 1996, pp. 86-87, no. 53 and back cover.
Jiang Tao and Liu Yunhui, Jades from the Hei-Chi Collection, Beijing, 2006, p. 117.
A. Carter, The LJZ Collection of Chinese Jades, London, 2022, pp. 12-13, no. 1.
Exhibited
Hong Kong, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Chinese Jade Animals, 19 April-14 July 1996.

Brought to you by

Vicki Paloympis (潘薇琦)
Vicki Paloympis (潘薇琦) Head of Department, VP, Specialist
+1 212 636 2180

Lot Essay

This rare jade figure of a seated bird (7.3 cm.) is very similar to a figure described as a pommel and dated mid-Western Han to Eastern Han period, 1st century BC – 2nd century AD, illustrated in Curio Boxes of Qianlong Emperor, p. 142, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2019. (Fig. 1) A bird-form water pot of comparable size (3 3/8 in.) and with very similar tail and legs in the collection of the King of Sweden, is illustrated by Desmond Gure, “Selected Examples from the Jade Exhibition at Stockholm, 1963; A Comparative Study”, B.M.F.E.A., no. 36, 1964, pl. 14, p. 133, where it is dated Wei (AD 220-265).

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