LIAO DYNASTY (AD 916-1125)

The present figure is finely carved as a boy shown wearing a long, loose robe, standing upright with a bird perched on his right arm. The carver has paid particular attention to the boy’s face, which is sensitively rendered, and to the realistic folds of the robe, including the back of the figure, where a sash is tied in an elegant bow and the drapery cascades to the ground in supple folds.

Compare a related jade carving of a boy of similar size from the Liao dynasty, also shown wearing a long, loose robe and standing in similar pose, illustrated in Zhongguo gudai yuqi yishu (The Art of Chinese Archaic Jades), vol. 2, Beijing, 2004, pp. 392–3, no. 181. See, also, a white jade figure of a boy holding a jar dated to the Jin dynasty, from the Qing court collection, now in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum: Jade, vol. 5, Beijing, 2011, p. 211, no. 249. Another related Jin-dynasty jade figure of a boy holding a bird, possibly a gyrfalcon, also in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in White Mountains, Black Waters and Gyrfalcon: Special Exhibition of the 860th Anniversary of Beijing Being the Capital of China, Beijing, 2013, p. 155.