I-Hsuan Chen
Senior Specialist
Lot 27
AN ARCHAIC BLACK JADE CARVING OF A PIG
Han Dynasty
20 March 2023, 08:30 EDT
New YorkSold for US$14,025 inc. premium
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Coco Li
Sale Coordinator, Chinese Works of Art
Michael Hughes
Vice President and Head of Department
AN ARCHAIC BLACK JADE CARVING OF A PIG
Han Dynasty
Of highly abstract slender form with rounded sides and flat base, the legs and feet delineated by deep slash cuts, the ears pinned back behind small eyes, the snout smoothly rounded, the rump cut flat with a thick pierced tab, the jet-black stone with cloudy mottling softly polished.
4 1/2in (11.5cm) length
Of highly abstract slender form with rounded sides and flat base, the legs and feet delineated by deep slash cuts, the ears pinned back behind small eyes, the snout smoothly rounded, the rump cut flat with a thick pierced tab, the jet-black stone with cloudy mottling softly polished.
4 1/2in (11.5cm) length
Footnotes
漢 墨玉豬
Jade pigs of this type were used in burials in the Han and throughout the Six Dynasties periods, made in pairs to place in the deceased's hands.
Compare the white jade carving of a pig, unearthed from the tomb of Liu Yan (d. A.D. 90) in Dingzhou, Hebei province, now in the collection of the Hebei Provincial Museum, illustrated by Sun in the catalog of the special exhibition, Age of Empires: Art of the Qin and Han Dynasties, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2017, p. 10, fig. 7.