SONG-MING DYNASTY (AD 960-1644)

Small jade figures of this type have been variously referred to as ibex or rams and have been dated from Tang to Song. A greyish-yellow jade ibex carved in the same position in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Philip Chu is illustrated by James C. Y. Watt, Chinese Jades from Han to Ch’ing, The Asia Society, New York, 1980, p. 52, no. 28, where it is dated Tang (AD 618-907) or earlier. Watt compares the figure to a greyish-green jade ‘ram’ in the collection of Desmond Gure, dated early Song, illustrated by Gure in “Selected Examples from the Jade Exhibition at Stockholm, 1963; A Comparative Study”, B.M.F.E.A., No. 36, 1964, pl. 30, fig. 4. Also illustrated, pl. 30, fig. 3, is an equally small bronze figure of an ibex (2 5/16 in.) from the collection of Mrs. B. Z. Seligman, dated late Tang/Early Song.