Lot 37. Two mottled pale green jade figures, Han Dynasty or later. The taller 10.4cm (4in) high. Estimate HK$ 100,000-150,000. Sold for HK$ 3,640,000 (€ 431,791). Photo: Bonhams.

With one figure carved as male and the other female, each standing in long-sleeved robes with arms held together at the front, the stone of a pale green tone with brown inclusions and flaws.

Note: The present pair of jade figures follows the style of dress and body posture found on burial pottery figures of attendants in Han dynasty. In accordance to beliefs of the afterlife, people during the Han dynasty were interred with all the provisions needed and luxuries acquired in life. Pottery models of attendants were a common feature of funerary accompaniments. See an earthenware standing figure of a female attendant, with similar long robes and hands held together, Western Han dynasty, in the Smithsonian Freer and Sackler Galleries, Washington D.C., accession no.F1956.6.

Compare a similarly carved white jade female figure, Han dynasty, in Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum: Jade 4, Beijing, 2011, p.140, no.167.

Bonhams. The Sze Yuan Tang Collection of Chinese Jades, Hong Kong, 5 April 2016