18TH-19TH CENTURY

This finely carved figure of a hound is similar in the quality of the white stone, and the detailing of its features, including the floppy ears, delineated ribs and coiled tail, to the figure of a hound that is shown seated rather than recumbent, illustrated in Guyu jingcui, Shanghai, 1987, pl. 148, which is dated to the Qing dynasty. Both of these figures, shown as slender hounds with floppy ears and a long curled tail, have their antecedents in earlier Tang-Song dynasty examples such as the yellow and dark brown jade figure of a hound shown facing forward, and wearing a belled collar, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, Chinese Jade Animals, Hong Kong, 1996, pp. 104-105, no. 75, where it is dated Tang-Song dynasty. This same figure is illustrated by Desmond Gure in "Selected Examples from the Jade Exhibition of Stockholm," B.M.F.E.A., No. 36, Stockholm, 1964, Pl. 25 (1), where it is dated Tang dynasty or earlier. Also illustrated, Pl. 25 (2) is a Sui-dynasty pottery figure of a recumbent hound shown with its head alertly raised and its front paws crossed.