Footnotes

十八世紀 青白玉雕靈猴抱子把件

Provenance: John Sparks Ltd., London (label)
An English private collection
Roger Keverne Ltd., London, 2012.
Lowenthal Collection, no.76

來源：倫敦John Sparks Ltd.（標籤）
英國私人收藏
2012年購於倫敦Roger Keverne Ltd.
Lowenthal藏品，编號76

The homophone for monkey (hou 猴), one of the twelve zodiac animals, is 'nobleman' or 'high official' as well as 'descendants'. The monkey therefore represents the wish for success for one's descendants. The representation of monkey and peach relates to the legendary Sun Wukong, also known as the Monkey King, who stole the peaches of immortality; when shown with a baby monkey as in the present lot, an additional rebus is formed of beibei fenghou (輩輩封侯), 'may generations of your descendants gain official salaries'. Therefore, the present lot bestows the auspicious wishes for success and longevity for future generations.

Compare with a related pale green jade carving of two monkeys and a peach, 18th century, which was sold at Sotheby's London, 10 May 2017, lot 92.

THE LOWENTHAL COLLECTION OF JADES

Hans 'Jack' Lowenthal was born in Frankfurt, Germany but at the age of five was brought to Britain with the rest of his family by his father in 1933. Although he briefly returned to Germany in 1934-1937 he thereafter permanently settled London. His father Julius Lowenthal founded the Smokers' and other accessories' business in Germany in 1921 but when he invented the most original semi-automatic lighter in 1928 he named it Colibri. Colibri gift lighters, pens, watches wallets became internationally well-known under the Colibri brand. In 1953, Hans Lowenthal joined Colibri and was the Managing Director for over 25 years. Lowenthal enjoyed designing and creating new products and he holds several important patents. Among the most important of his inventions was incorporating the Piezo-electric concept into a lighter, thereby creating a lighter that never needed a flint or battery, as the ignition spark was created manually. In 1967, he named the Colibri version 'Molectric' (molecular electricity). He also supervised Colibri when commisioned to design and manufacture the 'Golden Gun' and various Colibri products for the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun.

Julius Lowenthal began collecting jades in the 1950s, and one of his first items included a jade axe (Lot 127). Jack inherited his father's interest in jade and stone carvings and continued to collect and regularly attended auctions. In the late 1960s and 1970s, Jack purchased jade carvings from several well-known dealers including Louis Joseph, Hugh Moss, Roger Keverne, Michael Gillingham, and Marchants. Jack was a particularly passionate collector of tactile jade carvings of animals.