Lot 20. Rare ours en jade céladon-jaune, Dynastie Song ou antérieur. Estimate 60,000 — 80,000 €. Lot sold 247,500 €. Photo: Sotheby's

finement sculpté en position assise, la patte arrière gauche allongée entre les pattes avant fermement plantées au sol, le dos arrondi, l'animal regardant vers l'avant, la gueule entrouverte détaillée d'oreilles aplaties en arrière, les yeux ronds dans des paupières creusées, la pierre vert clair aux tons jaunes rehaussée de fines mouchetures rouille, couverte d'une belle patine brillante - 5,1 cm, 2 in.

Provenance: Christie's New York, 1st December 1988, lot 66.
Christie's New York, 19th September 1996, lot 205

Notes: From the Western Han Dynasty onwards, an artistic tradition of creating jade animals of the highest quality flourished. In contrast to the majority of earlier two-dimensional jade carvings, made for the afterlife or to adorn the individual, these figural sculptures were created in the round as independent objects, not just as sumptuous display items for the appreciation of the elite, but also to provide the owner with a constant and concrete realisation of the powerful supernatural forces latent in the world around.

Evidence of this rich tradition of craftsmanship has been transmitted down through a small number of exquisite carvings, of which the present small yellowish-green jade bear is a fine example. The craftsman has made good use of a lustrous coloured pebble in which the full contours have been so skillfully and compactly utilised to depict the form of a seated bear. While it is realistically rendered, it lacks some of the strength and force of Han examples, being slightly more benign in appearance and pointing to a date closer to the Song Dynasty when a deliberate revival of ancient styles and forms was behind some of these exquisite carvings of jade animals.

Compare the small white jade figure of a bear carved in a similar standing position, and with similar features, found in the area of the tomb of the Han Emperor, Yuandi (r. 48-33 BC), near Xi'an, Shaanxi province, which is illustrated by Jessica Rawson in Chinese Jade. From the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, p. 351, fig. 2(a).

Sotheby's. Jades Archaïques de Chine Comprenant L’ancienne Collection Max Loehr / Early Chinese Jade and Hardstone Carvings Including The Collection Of Max Loehr, Paris, 15 Dec 2016