A MOTTLED YELLOW JADE FIGURE OF A CAMEL SONG DYNASTY

skilfully worked in the form of a camel turning its head to rest on its back, the tail finely detailed with incisions and rendered swept to the side, the stone of a warm greyish-yellow colour accentuated with variegated dark brown patches

The Hei-Chi Collection.

Chinese Jade Animals, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1996, cat. no. 87.

Jiang Tao and Liu Yunhui, Jades from the Hei-Chi Collection, Beijing, 2006, p. 151.

The figure is in overall good condition with just insignificant nicks to the edges. The actual colour of the stone is a tinge less red than the catalogue illustration.
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Skilfully carved in the round with the neck curved gracefully towards its back to maximise the overall shape of the stone, the posture of this camel, with its legs folded beneath the body and exaggerated turn of the head, is often found in Song animal sculptures. This style appears to derive from Tang coiled animals which were in turn inspired by the severely coiled feline of the Han period. Furthermore, the underside of this figure reveals the particular care and attention taken to depict the legs and hooves of the animal, another tradition that began in the Han period. However, the developments in capturing the life and nature of animals during the Song period is visible in the carver’s ability to maximise the natural inclusions and colour of the stone, particularly on the face and tail, thus animating the carving. Small jade carvings of this type were often found on scholars’ desks, where they served both as paperweights and as works of art in their own right. The importance of camels was likely associated with wealth and status due to its links with Central Asia, a source of luxuries and exoticism.

It is uncommon to find jade carvings of camels in this pose, although a small yellow jade example, also attributed to the Song dynasty but with the head turned looking to the left, was sold at Christie’s New York, 4th June 1987, lot 62, and again in our New York rooms, 24th March 1998, lot 337. Related examples attributed to the Tang dynasty include one from the Avery Brundage Collection and now in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, illustrated in Yvonne d’Argence, Chinese Jades in the Avery Brundage Collection, San Francisco, pl. xxxii; another in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, included in the Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition Chinese Jade Throughout the Ages, London, 1975, cat. no. 201; another, from the Sze Tak Tang Collection, exhibited in Chinese Jade Carving, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1983, cat. no. 128; and a fourth carving sold at Christie’s New York, 1st December 1988, lot 73.