A white jade 'Elephant and boy' jade carving, Qing dynasty, 18th century
Lot 316. A white jade 'Elephant and boy' jade carving, Qing dynasty, 18th century. Height 5 1/4 in., 13.3 cm. Estimate 60,000 — 80,000 GBP. Lot sold 62,500 GBP. Photo Sotheby's.
the elephant standing foursquare with its head turned to its side, looking into the eyes of a deer standing in front of a bearded man holding a vase of flowers, the elephant caparisoned with a saddle cloth decorated with ruyi cloud scrolls, with a boy clambering on its back grasping a peony sprig in one hand.
Provenance: Collection of Robert von Hirsch, prior to 1977, thence by descent.
Note: The elephant is an auspicious symbol which is used in a number of rebuses to convey wishes of peace, prosperity and good fortune. In the present lot, the combination of the elephant, boy and vase forms the proverb taiping jingxiang, meaning peace in the land.
Elephants with boys and vases are commonly depicted in jade, and it is rare to find one carved also with a deer. For other representations of elephants in jade, compare the carving of a boy cleaning the elephant in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - Jadeware (III), Hong Kong, 1995, pp. 117-118, nos. 97 and 98 respectively. See also the elephant and boys group carving sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 8th April 2014, lot 3045.
Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, London, 17-18 march 2015