A celadon and grey jade figure of a horse Ming dynasty | 明 灰青玉臥馬

Collection of Gerald Godfrey.

Christie’s Hong Kong, 30th October 1995, lot 864.

高福履收藏

香港佳士得1995年10月30日，編號864

Chinese Jade, The Image from Within, Pacific Asia Museum, California, 1986, cat. no. 143.

Reverence of a Stone: An Exhibition of Chinese Jade from the Godfrey Collection, San Antonio Museum of Art, Texas, 1986.

Stones of Virtue, Chinese Jades from the Gerald Godfrey Collection, The Dayton Art Institute, Ohio, 1989, cat. no. 212.

Magic, Art and Order, Jade in Chinese Culture, Palm Springs Desert Museum, California, 1990, cat. no. 41.

Humphrey Hui, Tina Pang, and Michael Liu, Virtuous Treasures: Chinese Jades for the Scholar's Table, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2008, cat. no. 102.

《Chinese Jade: The Image from Within》，亞太博物館，加州，1986年，編號143

《Reverence of a Stone: An Exhibition of Chinese Jade from the Godfrey Collection》，聖安東尼奧藝術博物館，德克薩斯州，1986年

《Stones of Virtue, Chinese Jades from the Gerald Godfrey Collection》，代頓藝術學院，俄亥俄州，1989年，編號212

《Magic, Art and Order, Jade in Chinese Culture》，棕櫚泉美術館，加州，1990年，編號41

許建勳、彭綺雲、劉瑞隆，《閣有天珍：中國文房玉雕》，香港大學美術博物館，香港，2008年，編號102

The present lot represents some of the finest examples of large jade animal carvings originating from workshops at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

Dynamically modelled with its head raised and turned backwards, the jade horse is naturalistically carved with taut muscles and a pronounced spine, skillfully detailed with incised mane, tail and tufts of hair behind the hooves. 

The carving exemplifies the thriving artistic tradition of equine representations during this period, which strives to capture more than the mere physical likeness of subjects but to convey the creature's innate strength and its playful nature.

Jessica Rawson discusses a stylistically similar large grey-green jade horse, which she identifies as 17th century, in Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, pl. 26:20. Another comparable Ming dynasty jade horse from the John D. Rockefeller 3rd collection was illustrated in Handbook of the Mr and Mrs John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, New York, 1981, p. 57, top left.