Live Auction 17837Lacquer, Jade, Bronze, Ink: The Irving Collection Day Sale
A PALE GREENISH WHITE JADE BIXI-FORM WATER DROPPER
Lot 1170 THE FLORENCE AND HERBERT IRVING COLLECTION

A PALE GREENISH WHITE JADE BIXI-FORM WATER DROPPER

CHINA, 17TH CENTURY

Closed21 March 2019

Price Realised

USD 33,750

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A PALE GREENISH WHITE JADE BIXI-FORM WATER DROPPER
CHINA, 17TH CENTURY
The mythical beast shown in a crouching position with an ear-cup projecting from the mouth below a tiny hole, carved with curved horns that sweep back to flank the opening in the back, and with scrolls on the haunches and a bifurcated tail, the underside of the belly carved with an archaistic dragon, the stone of pale greenish white tone with a few natural dark fissures and minor opaque white inclusions
5 ¼ in. (13.3 cm.) long

Roger Keverne, London, 2000.
The Irving Collection, no. 270.

Specialist note

A similar jade bixi-form water pot, also with an ear-cup extending from the mouth of the beast, that still retains the removable water dropper, in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, dated to the seventeenth century, late Ming to early Qing period, is illustrated in Through the Prism of the Past: Antiquarian Trends in Chinese Art of the 16th to 18th century, Taipei, 2003, p. 47, pl. I-21. See, also, another bixi-form greenish white jade water pot of this type sold at Christie's, New York, 22-23 March 2012, lot 1986.