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A pair of celadon saucer dishes with Jingwei tang zhi hall marks 18th/19th century
TRÈS RARE ET BELLE ASSIETTE EN LAQUE SCULPTÉE Marque et époque Jiajing (1522-1566)
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A rare grey, black and brown jade figure of Zhou Yanzi 17th Century or earlier image 1
A rare grey, black and brown jade figure of Zhou Yanzi 17th Century or earlier image 2
A rare grey, black and brown jade figure of Zhou Yanzi 17th Century or earlier image 3
A rare grey, black and brown jade figure of Zhou Yanzi 17th Century or earlier image 4
A rare grey, black and brown jade figure of Zhou Yanzi 17th Century or earlier image 5
A rare grey, black and brown jade figure of Zhou Yanzi 17th Century or earlier image 6
A rare grey, black and brown jade figure of Zhou Yanzi 17th Century or earlier image 7
A rare grey, black and brown jade figure of Zhou Yanzi 17th Century or earlier image 8
A rare grey, black and brown jade figure of Zhou Yanzi 17th Century or earlier image 9
A rare grey, black and brown jade figure of Zhou Yanzi 17th Century or earlier image 10
A rare grey, black and brown jade figure of Zhou Yanzi 17th Century or earlier image 11
A rare grey, black and brown jade figure of Zhou Yanzi 17th Century or earlier image 12
A rare grey, black and brown jade figure of Zhou Yanzi 17th Century or earlier image 13
A rare grey, black and brown jade figure of Zhou Yanzi 17th Century or earlier image 14
A rare grey, black and brown jade figure of Zhou Yanzi 17th Century or earlier image 15
A rare grey, black and brown jade figure of Zhou Yanzi 17th Century or earlier image 16
A rare grey, black and brown jade figure of Zhou Yanzi 17th Century or earlier image 17
A rare grey, black and brown jade figure of Zhou Yanzi 17th Century or earlier image 18
A rare grey, black and brown jade figure of Zhou Yanzi 17th Century or earlier image 19
A rare grey, black and brown jade figure of Zhou Yanzi 17th Century or earlier image 20
PROPERTY OF AN ENGLISH LADY
Lot 30

A rare grey, black and brown jade figure of Zhou Yanzi
17th Century or earlier

Chinese Works of Art and Paintings
15 March 2021, 10:00 EDT
New York

Sold for US$3,187.50 inc. premium

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A rare grey, black and brown jade figure of Zhou Yanzi

17th Century or earlier
The standing figure clutching a milk pail in his right hand and wearing knee-length robes tied at his waist over baggy pants, his right hand bent backwards to clutch the hoof of a deer, the skin of which he wears as a cloak, the deer's head covering the top and back of the boys shaved head, the deer's antler's and ears hanging down to the neck, the four legs and hooves and tail of the animal skin delicately carved in fine details to the reverse side which is itself cut from the dark skin of the pebble.
3 1/4in (8.2cm) high

Footnotes

十七世纪或更早 灰黑玉雕鹿乳奉親

PROVENANCE
Spink and Son, Ltd., London

來源
Spink and Son, Ltd., 倫敦

For another Ming example carved from a celadon-white pebble with a russet skin, see S. Howard Hansford, The Arts of the Ming Dynasty: Carvings in Jade, Ivory, Rhinoceros Horn and Bamboo, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, 1955-56/1256-57, London, 1958, p. 55, no. 356, pl. 95 and which entered the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, in 1987 (accession no.S1987.759). See two others of slightly differing concept but similar size, Chinese Jade: An Important Private Collection, Spink & Son, London, 1991, no. 120; and Post-Archaic Chinese Jades from Private Collections, S. Marchant and Son, London, 2000, no. 23.

Other examples have appeared at auction infrequently, all of slightly differing concept but of the same subject, the morally-instructive Chinese folk-tale and later Confucian exemplum praising filial piety. The figure of Zhou Yanzi is depicted wearing a deerskin draped over his head to hide his identidy from a herd of deer in order to gather milk for his ailing father. For others, see Sotheby's, London, 7 December 1993, lot 92; Sotheby's, New York, 31 March 2005, lot 57; Christie's, London, 10 May 2015, lot 20; and another similarly-sized example at Sotheby's, New York, The Robert Youngman Collection of Chinese Jade, 19 March 2019, lot 241 and also illustrated by Robert P. Youngman, The Youngman Collection of Chinese Jades from Neolithic to Qing, Chicago, 2008, pl. 181.

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A pair of celadon saucer dishes with Jingwei tang zhi hall marks 18th/19th century
TRÈS RARE ET BELLE ASSIETTE EN LAQUE SCULPTÉE Marque et époque Jiajing (1522-1566)