Lot 20. A jade tiger, Shang Dynasty and a jade bird, Western Zhou Dynasty. Estimate HK$60,000 - 80,000 (US$7,700 - 10,000). Sold for HK$ 562,500 (€64,546). Photo: Bonhams.

The crouching tiger carved from a thick section of jade with distinctly incised details of eyes, ears, limbs and tail in low-relief, 3.9cm (1 1/2in) long; the small bird carved in three sections with the top indicating the head, the middle part as the body and the tapering section with a flared end as the tail, 2.5cm (1in) long; both of pale green tone with areas of opaque buff alterations, the bird with traces of cinnabar. (2).

Provenance: Jade tiger: J.D. Chen King Kwei
Mr and Mrs Malcolm E. McPherson, acquired from Mayuyama &Co., Tokyo, in the late 1950s
Christie's New York, 19 March 2008, lot 474 (part lot)
Jade bird: Cheung Tao Yin, Hong Kong, 1982
The Songzhutang collection, nos.23 and 28

Exhibited: San Francisco, Golden Gate Park, Hall of Flowers, Treasures of the Orient, Society for Asian Art, 1979, no.13 (tiger)

Published and Illustrated: S.Umehara, Yin Hsu, Asahi Shinbunsha, Tokyo, 1964, pl.CXLI (tiger)
T.Fok, The Splendour of Jade: The Songzhutang Collection of Jade, Hong Kong, 2011, pls.23 and 28

Note: Cheung Tao Yin was an eminent collector of Chinese archaic jades who was a renowned filmmaker in Hong Kong in the 1970s. One of his notable works includes Dragon Inn.

Compare an example of a jade tiger, late Shang dynasty, in the Avery Brundage collection, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, illustrated by R.L.d'Argencé, Chinese Jades in the Avery Brundage Collection, San Francisco, 1977, p.26, pl.VI. Another example of a crouching tiger pendant with a slightly longer tail, late Shang or early Western Zhou dynasty, is in the collection of Sir Joseph Hotung in the British Museum, illustrated by J.Rawson, Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, p.214, no.12:8. See also a related example of a jade bird, Western Zhou dynasty, illustrated in Gems of Beijing Cultural Relics Series: Jades, Beijing, 2002, p.61, pl.38.

Bonhams. THE SONGZHUTANG COLLECTION OF EARLY JADES from the Neolithic Period to the Yuan Dynasty, 30 May 2017, 14:00 HKT - HONG KONG, ADMIRALTY