A LARGE CELADON JADE FIGURE OF A RECUMBENT WATER BUFFALO 17TH CENTURY

substantially worked in the form of a recumbent water buffalo with its head turned to the left and resting on its left foreleg, the head sensitively rendered with flaring nostrils and alert eyes, crowned with a pair of long curved striated horns, the forehead with a small tuft of hair depicted with fine incisions, the body prominently accentuated with taut muscles and a curved spine terminating in a tail sweeping over its hind haunch, the pale celadon stone mottled with white and grey inclusions

Collection of the Hon. Mrs Mary Anna Marten OBE (1929-2010), Crichel House, Dorset, purchased prior to 1953.
Woolley and Wallis, Salisbury, 17th November 2010, lot 341.

Chinese Jade Throughout the Ages, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1975, cat. no. 396.

The figure is in good overall condition with just minute nicks to areas of the fragile extremities, including the left eyelid, tips of the hooves.
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This sensitively rendered water buffalo is outstanding in its workmanship and unique for the rendering of wrinkled skin on the creature’s body and forehead, to suggest age and its associated traits of experience and wisdom. The large boulder has been impressively transformed into a handsome buffalo with broad confident features and monumental reclining body to encapsulate its proverbial power and gentleness, qualities further evoked by the solid curves of the muscular body.

Water buffaloes were revered from early on in Chinese history and were much used in agriculture, as their wide-splayed hoofed feet prevented them from sinking too deeply into wet earth and allowed them to plough through wetlands and swamps. Their bucolic character evoked the simple essence of life in the countryside and escape from the duties and responsibilities of office.

A popular subject in Chinese painting, water buffaloes were depicted in a variety of media since ancient times, including bronze and jade. One of the earliest surviving jade examples is a small figure depicting a reclining and forward-facing animal, attributed to the late Shang dynasty (13th-11th centuries BC), in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, accession. no. 1976.297.2.

The dating of the group of large and impressively rendered jade sculptures, to which the present animal belongs, has been much discussed. The characteristic choice of material for this and similar buffaloes, distinctly coloured and veined, fits best with a late Ming (1368-1644) date, while the masculine strength, elegance and simplicity of the sculpting are also in tune with stylistic principles of the Kangxi reign (1662-1722).

Comparable carvings of buffaloes from prestigious collections of the past include two now in the Woolf Charitable Trust, published in The Woolf Collection of Chinese Jade, London, 2013, pls 99 and 100; the Jacob Goldschmidt buffalo, included in the exhibition Ausstellung Chinesischer Kunst, Gesellschaft für Ostasiatische Kunst und Preussische Akademie der Künste, Berlin, 1929, cat. no. 1085, and the Baron Lionel de Rothschild buffalo, formerly in the collection of Somerset de Chair, later in the Eckstein Collection, sold twice in our London rooms, 19th April 1937, lot 47, and 9th December 1948, lot 111. See also the Oscar Raphael buffalo, from the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, illustrated in James C.S. Lin, The Immortal Stone, Cambridge, 2009, pl. 36; the Alexander Ionides buffalo, later in the Hotchis Collection, sold in our London rooms, 20th May 1954, lot 101; and another from the Mrs James Cromwell Collection, sold at Christie’s New York, 30th November 1983, lot 275, and again, 19th March 2008, lot 436, from the estate of Leona M. Helmsley; and the much smaller spinach-green Pelham water buffalo, sold at Woolley and Wallis, Salisbury, 20th May 2009, lot 388.

Similar carvings fashioned from grey and black jade stones include one from the Somerset de Chair and Mrs Parsons collections, sold twice in our London rooms, 18th July 1952, lot 50, and again, 9th June 2004, lot 151; the Lord Gladwyn buffalo, offered in our London rooms, 1st November 1966, lot 47, and now in the collection of Sir Joseph Hotung, illustrated in Jessica Rawson, Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, pl. 26:19; another, from the Bulgari and Richard J. Robertson collections, sold three times at auction, most recently in our London rooms, 4th November 2009, lot 89; and a fourth example, from the Hall Family Collection, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 8th April 2010, lot 1909. The white jade Tutein Nolthenius buffalo, included in several exhibitions including Oosterse Schatten – 4000 Jaar Aziatische Kunst, Amsterdam, 1954, cat. no. 86, was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1st December 2009, lot 2009.

This jade buffalo comes from the collection of the Hon. Mrs Mary Anna Marten OBE (1929-2010), the goddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II, and appointed Deputy Lieutenant of Dorset and OBE in 1979. Mary Anna Marten was a notable archaeologist, and her numerous achievements include establishing the Ancient Persia Fund in 1988 in memory of the orientalist Vladimir Lukonin, and serving as Trustee of the British Museum from 1985 until 1998, having twice been reappointed, and as Trustee of the Royal Collections. She was a keen collector of Chinese art, with a particular interest in jade, as well as rare books.