Footnotes

十八世紀 青白玉雕麒麟負書把件

Provenance: Christie's London, 3 May 1978, lot 144
Lowenthal Collection, no.51

來源：倫敦佳士得，1978年5月3日，編號144
Lowenthal藏品，编號51

The qilin represents a number of positive attributes including benevolence, longevity, grandeur, felicity, illustrious offspring and wise administration. It is considered a good omen as it is said to appear only during the reign of a benevolent ruler. However, the particular symbolism represented by the mythical beast carrying books is based on a legend from the life of Confucius, when it was said that neighbours saw a qilin delivering books made of jade at the time of his birth. Furthermore, auspicious symbolism is conveyed by the pun lin tu yu shu ('May you give birth to an illustrious son').

For a related jade carving of a qilin, Qianlong, in the Qing Court Collection, see The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Jadeware (III), Hong Kong, 1995, p.114, no.94; and illustrated by R.Keverne, ed., Jade, London, 1995, p.154, fig.67, where Yang Boda noted that 'Kylin are rarely represented in jade'.

See a related very pale green and russet jade carving of a recumbent qilin, 18th century, which was sold at Bonhams Hong Kong, 29 November 2016, lot 13.

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.