A CELADON JADE 'BOYS' GROUP LATE MING / EARLY QING DYNASTY

carved in the round, the taller figure bearing stalks of rice, the stems bent over from the weight of the grain heads resting against the back of the shoulder, the other figure holding a tasseled drum and mallet, both smiling and wearing draped robes with pendent sash belts, the stone with cloudy and dark gray inclusions, fitted wood stand (2)

Collection of Mrs. D. Schwartz, Tunbridge Wells, England (by repute).
G. Malina, Inc., New York, 1982.

Another jade carving of a boy with a stalk of rice, dated to the late Ming period, is illustrated in Chinese Jades from Han to Ch'ing, Asia Society, New York, 1980, cat. no. 97. The depiction of two boys with two heads of grain could be an allusion to the Hehe Erxian, however, as Teresa Tse Bartholomew explains in Hidden Meanings: Symbolism in Chinese Art, San Francisco, 2006, p. 246, an overladen stalk of grain symbolizes the five grains, or wugu, and represents a bumper harvest.