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A soapstone figure of 'sleeping' li Bai 18th Century image 1
A soapstone figure of 'sleeping' li Bai 18th Century image 2
A soapstone figure of 'sleeping' li Bai 18th Century image 3
PROPERTY OF AN ENGLISH LADY
Lot 48

A soapstone figure of 'sleeping' li Bai
18th Century

15 March 2021, 10:00 EDT
New York

Sold for US$2,550 inc. premium

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A soapstone figure of 'sleeping' li Bai

18th Century
The drunken poet peacefully slumbering against an over-turned wine jar under his left side which raises his upper torso, the languid pose is liquidly-mirrored in the sinuous folds of his absurdly-elongated flowing sleeves, his out-stretched form, long droopy moustache and his heavy-lidded closed eyes, his robe delicately incised with blossoms on waves at the borders, waves and clouds at his plump belly, further clouds dotted around his robes and with lishui stripes at the hem.
4in (10.1cm) across

Footnotes

十八世紀 壽山石雕李白像

PROVENANCE
Ralph M. Chait Galleries, New York

來源
Ralph M. Chait Galleries, 紐約

Another figure in a darker red soapstone but again depicting the drunken poet Li Bai, was sold at Christie's, New York, 'Lacquer, Jade, Bronze, Ink -The Irving Collection, Part II, 21 March 2019, lot 1184. Another example, also from the Ralph M. Chait Galleries, New York, sold at Sotheby's, New York, 'Property from the Collection of Marion and Henry Bloch', 24 June 2020, lot 1045; and another sold at Sotheby's, Hong Kong, 2-3 June 2016, lot 281.

For a figure in the Qing Court Collection, of slightly smaller-size and carved from jade, see Gugong Bowuyuan Cang Wenwu Zhenpin Quanji (Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum) Jadeware III, Hong Kong, 1995, p. 124, no. 104. Another soapstone recumbent figure described as a 'big-bag mendicant, is illustrated Gugong Bowuyuan Cang Wenwu Zhenpin Quanji (Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum) Inscriptions and Sculptures, Hong Kong, 2008, p. 218, no. 204.

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