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Property from a private collection, Rancho Mirage, California
Lot 7038
A fine jade luohan and grotto 18th century
23 June 2015, 10:00 PDT
San FranciscoSold for US$12,500 inc. premium
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A fine jade luohan and grotto
18th century
Deeply undercut and hollowed to depict the Buddhist adept seated on a woven mat, a book and lighted incense burner resting on a ledge above his shoes, the deep recesses of a cave illuminated by holes in the ceiling covered with overhanging willow branches on the front while a pine tree, lingzhi fungus and hanging moss grow on the faceted rock faces of the surrounding sides; the pale gray-green matrix displaying cloudy white inclusions, with some natural fissure lines and pale russet stains.
6in (15cm) high
Deeply undercut and hollowed to depict the Buddhist adept seated on a woven mat, a book and lighted incense burner resting on a ledge above his shoes, the deep recesses of a cave illuminated by holes in the ceiling covered with overhanging willow branches on the front while a pine tree, lingzhi fungus and hanging moss grow on the faceted rock faces of the surrounding sides; the pale gray-green matrix displaying cloudy white inclusions, with some natural fissure lines and pale russet stains.
6in (15cm) high
Footnotes
The theme of a luohan in a grotto appears frequently in jade carvings from the Ming period onward. See James C.Y. Watt's discussion of a deeply undercut luohan in a grotto from the collection of the Fogg Art Museum, ascribed by him to the late 17th-early 18th century in Chinese Jades from Han to Ch'ing, 1980, cat. no. 104, pp. 122-123. See also the luohan and grotto group of similar size and deep undercutting sold in Christie's, Hong Kong sale 2711, 27 May 2009, lot 1977.
Although of Buddhist origin, the luohan became appropriate subject matter for the scholar's desk: their withdrawal from the world to pursue a life of Buddhist meditation mirrored the scholar-official's ideal of retiring from the cares of civil office. See, for example, the white jade circular plaque from the collection of Andrew K. F. Lee, included in the exhibition Virtuous Treasures: Chinese Jades for the Scholar's Table, Hong Kong, 2007, cat. no.47, p. 111.