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Lot 10*
A rare pale green jade 'pomegranate and butterfly' box and cover 18th century
8 November 2012, 10:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£10,000 - £15,000
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A rare pale green jade 'pomegranate and butterfly' box and cover
18th century
Crisply carved on the cover in relief with an elaborate butterfly hovering in flight over two fruiting pomegranate just beginning to burst to reveal their seeds, the branches entwined with delicate leafy tendrils, the box itself smoothly shaped as a pomegranate and the base carved with a low foot, wood stand.
10.5cm (4 1/8in) long (3).
Crisply carved on the cover in relief with an elaborate butterfly hovering in flight over two fruiting pomegranate just beginning to burst to reveal their seeds, the branches entwined with delicate leafy tendrils, the box itself smoothly shaped as a pomegranate and the base carved with a low foot, wood stand.
10.5cm (4 1/8in) long (3).
Footnotes
十八世紀 青玉雕蝴蝶紋石榴式蓋盒
The pomegranate is a familiar symbol of fertility, and together with the peach and the finger citron it is one of the Three Abundances. The depiction of a pomegranate at the point of splitting open, as in the present lot, is described as 榴開百子 liukai baizi (pomegranate revealing one hundred sons).
Compare a related larger peach-shaped jade box and cover in the Victoria and Albert Museum, illustrated by M.Wilson, Chinese Jades, London, 2004, pl.58.














