A PALE CELADON JADE CAMEL MING DYNASTY

carved recumbent with its legs tucked underneath its body, its long neck extended and its head turned back towards its contoured humps, the stone of an even pale yellowish celadon tone

An old Japanese private collection.

For a Qing example of the same subject, compare a similarly modelled yellow jade camel is in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Jadeware (III), Hong Kong, 1995, p. 112, pl. 92, where its function was described to be a brushrest, paperweight or an object for display and appreciation. Another similarly carved camel, of buff-coloured jade, is in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, illustrated by Michael Knight, He Li and Terese Tse Bartholomew, Later Chinese Jades: Ming Dynasty to Early Twentieth Century, San Francisco, 2007, p. 113, no. 85.