A CARVED ZITAN 'JADE RABBIT' POEM CLIP LATE MING – EARLY QING DYNASTY

rendered in the form of craggy and perforated rockwork, hinged at the bottom with a circular clip, deftly created so that the clip can be moved out, the clip carved with the Jade Rabbit using a mortar and pestle to create the elixir of longevity beneath an osmanthus tree

Zitan poem clips of this form, also referred to as wristrests, are extremely rare, in contrast to their more commonly found counterparts in bamboo. A similarly constructed bamboo wristrest depicting a scholar seated amidst rockwork, sold in our London rooms, 14th December 1976, lot 234, is now in the Cleveland Museum of Art, illustrated by Wang Shixiang and Wan-go Weng, Bamboo Carving of China, China Institute in America, New York, 1983, cat. no. 4, where is conjectured that it may have been used as a slip for clipping poems. See also a bamboo example from the Robert H. Blumenfield collection, sold in these rooms, 7th April 2015, lot 3010. Traditionally, the shadows on the moon conjure up images of the Jade Rabbit, believed to share his home with Chang’e, the goddess of the moon, using a mortar and jade pestle to create the elixir of longevity. The waxing and waning of the moon and its cyclical rejuvenation led to a Daoist association with immortality.