Lot 49. A pale green jade archaistic ear cup, 17th-18th century; 11.5cm (4 1/2in) long. Estimate HK$120,000-150,000. Sold for HK$ 162,500 (€ 19,416). Photo Bonhams.

Raised on a narrow short foot with a pair of elongated 'ear' handles pierced with small paisley-shaped apertures, the sides below the mouth rim carved with a band of lingzhi on a cross-hatched ground, the stone of a yellow-green tone with faint russet inclusions. 

Note: Ear cups were first produced in lacquer during the Han dynasty and interred in the tombs of the wealthy and elite. Jade counterparts of this object were subsequently made during the Qing dynasty, where archaism was a major preoccupation for the Emperor and his Court.

A white jade ear cup, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, incised with a Qianlong four-character seal mark, is illustrated in The Refined Taste of the Emperor: Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Ch'ing Court, Taipei, 1997, no. 31.

Bonham's. The Sze Yuan Tang Collection of Chinese Jades, Hong Kong, Admiralty, 5 April 2016