A PALE CELADON JADE 'ELEPHANT AND BOYS' GROUP

Details

A PALE CELADON JADE 'ELEPHANT AND BOYS' GROUP
QING DYNASTY, 18TH CENTURY

Modelled as an elephant with its head turned to one side, dressed with a tasselled saddlecloth draped aross its back, supporting a circular potted plant, tied around the exterior with a long ribbon in falling to the sides, all above a young boy seated on the head of the elephant, holding out in both hands a leafy branch bearing ripe fruit, looking toward his companion who is crouched behind the elephant's back, teasing the animal with a flowering peony spray, the stone of pale celadon tone
6 11/16 in. (17 cm.) wide

Provenance

T.B. Walker, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Literature

Walker Art Centre, Monneapolis, Minnesota, Catalogue, 1950, no.177
Robert Kleiner, Chinese Jades from the Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, Hong Kong, 1996, no.170

Exhibited

Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1950
Christie's New York, March 13-26, 2001
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, August 2003 - December 2004

Lot Essay

The potted plant on the back of the elephant is a stylised version of Rhodhea japonica or wannianqing, which bears red berries during the New Year season. It is considered auspicious as its name may be translated as: 'Green for ten thousand years'. The combined imagery of the wannianqing plant and the elephant forms the rebus, Wanxiang Gengxin, 'May the New Year bring a revival of ten thousand things', an auspicious felicitation during the New Year festival.

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