Lot 222. A small white jade 'Hare' pendant, Tang dynasty (618-907). Length 1 3/8  in., 3.5 cm. Estimate 6,000 — 8,000 USD. Lot sold 57,500 USD. Courtesy Sotheby's.

laying recumbent with its legs tucked into its plump sides and its head nestled between the shoulders, the ears resting atop the back, the rounded contours of the legs, face, and tail naturalistically rendered, the eyelids, whiskers, and fringes of fur finely incised, pierced through the back with four additional smaller holes at the belly, the stone an opaque creamy-white color streaked with fine brown veins.

Provenance: Collection of Jon Edwards.
Weisbrod Chinese Art, Ltd., New York. 

Exhibited: A Private Collection of Early Chinese Jades, Weisbrod Chinese Art, Ltd. New York, 1994, cat. no. 12.

Literature: Robert P. Youngman, The Youngman Collection of Chinese Jades from Neolithic to Qing, Chicago, 2008, pl. 122.

Note: The small hare is tenderly depicted in a natural pose and with careful attention to its anatomy, revealing the artisan's intimate familiarity with the animal. This naturalistic approach characterizes Tang dynasty jade carvings of animals, particularly small works carved from pebbles, such as the present. Compare a small yellow jade carving of a hare in the collection of the British Museum, published in Jessica Rawson, Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, pl. 26:9; and a similarly charming small white jade duck-form pendant in the collection of the Palace Museum, published in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Jadeware, vol. 2, Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 10.