Lot 3. An extremely rare jade vessel, hu, Eastern Han dynasty (25-220); h. 12.7 cm, 5 in.. Estimate: 400,000 - 600,000 HKD. Lot sold 1,386,000 HKD. Courtesy Sotheby's.

the rounded shoulder of the vessel flanked by a pair of handles, each superbly rendered in low relief as an animal mask picked out with swift incisions and suspending a mock ring, the smoothly patinated stone of a pale brown colour with grey mottles.

Property from the Hei-Chi Collection.

Literature: Jiang Tao and Liu Yunhui, Jades from Hei-Chi Collection II, Beijing, 2012, p. 91.

Note: Jade vessels from the Han dynasty, made only for the use of the nobility, are extremely rare, possibly because of the inevitable waste of material involved in the production process. The deceptive simplicity of the present vessel, probably inspired by contemporaneous bronzes, conceals the technical challenge presented to the carver, who had to empty the interior through the relatively narrow mouth. No comparable example appears to have been published. Compare an elaborately carved Western Han dynasty animal mask handle, excavated from the mausoleum of Emperor Wudi (156-88 BC), Xingping, Shaanxi, included in The Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China, vol. 14: Shaanxi, Beijing, 2005, pl. 132, together with an undecorated stem cup of a similar greyish brown tone from the mausoleum of Emperor Zhaodi (94-74 BC), pl. 155.