Lot 56. A white jade figure of a recumbent pig, Eastern Zhou dynasty, Spring and Autumn period (770-475 BC); 3.7 cm, 1 ⅜ in. Estimate: 200,000 - 300,000 HKD HKD. Lot sold 189,000 HKD. Courtesy Sotheby's.

skilfully worked with a protruding and upturned snout, the sides of the rounded body rendered with low-relief scrollwork echoing the haunches and short spiral tail, pierced through with an aperture, the white stone with light russet patches.

Property from the Hei-Chi Collection.

Literature: Jiang Tao and Liu Yunhui, Jades from the Hei-Chi Collection, Beijing, 2006, p. 83.

Note: This miniature figure, probably made in the late Spring and Autumn period, is meticulously carved in the round as an adorable recumbent pig, finely detailed with scrollwork. This style of carving is apparent on jades from the Shanxi province. A scabbard slide excavated from the tomb of Minister Zhou of State Jin at Taiyuan, for example, is carved with a serpent, a bird and a dragon and elaborated with voluminous scrollwork and incised details; see The Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China, vol. 3: Shanxi, Beijing, 2005, pl. 189. Compare also two miniature jade animal carvings from the Warring States period excavated from Fenshuiling, Changzhi, Shanxi, published ibid., pls 224 and 228.

Sotheby's. Monochrome II, 9 October 2020, Hong Kong