SONG DYNASTY (960-1279)

Details

A WHITE AND RUSSET JADE CARVING OF A HORSE
SONG DYNASTY (960-1279)
The recumbent horse is carved in the round with head forward and resting on two outstretched forelegs. Its mane is lightly incised, the underside is deeply carved with the tail tucked between the two back legs. The stone is predominantly of pale celadon tone with extensive flecked russet inclusions and a mottled polish.
5 in. (12.7cm.) long, box

Provenance

The Gerald Godfrey Private Collection of Fine Chinese Jades
Sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 October 1995, lot 845

Literature

Wu Hung, ‘Tradition and Innovation, Ancient Chinese Jades in the Gerald Godfrey Collection’, Orientations, November 1986, fig. 7

Exhibited

Pacific Asia Museum, California, 1986, Catalogue, no. 146
San Antonio Museum of Art, Texas, 1986
The Dayton Art Institute, Ohio, 1989, no. 84
Palm Springs Desert Museum, California, 1990, Catalogue, no. 84

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Lot Essay

It is interesting to note the modelling of the present horse with its legs outstretched. Jade animals were popular during the Song period reviving a tradition that flourished during the Tang dynasty. The present jade is more likely to be inspired by early carvings such as the recumbent horse on a rectangular base in the Victor Shaw Collection, illustrated by J. Watt, Chinese Jades from the Han to Ch’ing, 1980, no. 65 which the author dates to the Tang dynasty. The mottling of the jade surfaces is very similar to a recumbent jade ram in the British Museum illustrated by J. Rawson, Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, p. 368, fig. 1, which entered the Museum’s collection in 1937.

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