Description A Chinese greyish white jade carving of a foreigner on a mythical beast
18th Century or earlier
The curly-haired foreigner in a flowing robe seated astride the beast, with scarves fluttering in the wind, bearing a vase of auspicious objects in his hands, the curly-maned beast with scrolling brows, its front left paw raised and back right leg extended mid-stride, the stone of a slightly mottled opaque pale greyish-beige tone.
H: 2 1/4, L: 3 in.
PROVENANCE:
Collection of Sau Kuen Chin, Guangdong Province, acquired prior to 1961
Thence by descent to the present owner, a private New England collection
Note: Such a depiction of a foreigner with mythical beast is unusual. Compare the figure of a western groom tending a horse in the Avery Brundage Collection, Asian Arts Museum, San Francisco, B64J388. See also the larger figure of Fung-Kan, with fluttering scarves and leonine beast, dated to the late Ming dynasty, in Stanley Charles Nott, "Chinese Jade Throughout the Ages", Rutland, 1972, pl. CXLVII. See also Liu Yang and Edmund Capon, "Translucent World, Chinese Jade from the Forbidden City, Sydney, 2000, no. 48, for a small figure of a dancing foreigner, dated to the Tang dynasty, and a foreigner with vase, dated to the 17th/18th century, sold at Christie's New York, March 18, 2008, lot 420.
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