Jade tribute bearer

Jade tribute bearer.

A celadon jade model of a tribute bearer, the bearded Western Asiatic kneeling on his left knee, wearing long coat and sleeves covering his hands and a soft cloth cap with curled end tied around his head, his features with large round eyes and nose above his protruding upper lip and curly beard, holding aloft above his right shoulder either a circular bowl containing a flaming pearl or an incense burner, issuing with smoke or flames, the stone of even tone

China: Tang dynasty (618–907).

Provenance: Dr. Cheng Te K’un, Hong Kong Bluett & Sons, London.
                     Thomas Yen, Hong Kong.

Purchased from Bluett & Sons London, on 20 December 1990.

Published: Hansford, Chinese Carved Jades, Faber, 1968, pl. 69A.
                  Wu and Morgan, Chinese Jades from the Mu-Fei Collection, no. 40.
                  Morgan, Naturalism & Archaism: Chinese Jades from the Kirknorton Collection, no. 15
                  Maudsley (ed.), Art & Imitation in China, p. 161, no. 51.

For a Tang dynasty white jade model of a foreign wine peddler from the C. F. Wu Collection, see Art of China, p. 81, no. 3; for another pale celadon jade foreigner carrying a jar with tribute, see Gure, ‘Some Unusual Early Jades and Their Dating’, pl. 42 a & b; and for a late Tang to early Song dynasty white jade figure of a dancing foreigner, see Knapton Rasti Asian Art Ltd., November 2005: Jade, frontispiece and no. 9.

Dimensions

Price on application

This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance