A very rare white jade carving of a mythical horse carrying scrolls, longma

Qianlong

Qianlong
Crisply carved as a mythical horse flying above crested waves with a spiralling base, the horse's head with finely incised mane, almond-shaped eyes and flaring nostrils, the horse turned back sharply, a bundle of scrolls tied together with a long billowing ribbon clasped in its mouth, the stone of pale white tone with a slight yellowish tinge on the face, wood stand and box. 8.3cm (3 1/4in) high. (3).

清乾隆 白玉雕龍馬負書擺件

Provenance: Sotheby's London, 13 November 1972, lot 14
William Clayton Ltd., London, 3 January 1973
An English private collection
S.Marchant & Son Ltd., London, Recent Acquisitions 2009, no.58
Lowenthal Collection, no.63

來源：倫敦蘇富比，1972年11月13日，拍品編號14
1973年1月3日，倫敦William Clayton Ltd.
英國私人收藏
2009年購於倫敦S.Marchant & Son Ltd.，"Recent Acquisitions"，編號58
Lowenthal藏品，编號63

The longma (龍馬), literally 'dragon horse', is an auspicious creature that according to legend emerged from the Luo River revealing itself to Fuxi, the first of the three legendary sovereigns of ancient China. The markings on the creature's back inspired Fuxi to invent the Eight Trigrams, which led to the invention of writing and calligraphy, represented by the scrolls on the creature's back. The Han dynasty scholar Kong Anguo (156-74 BC) wrote that 'its shape consists of a horse's body, yet it has dragon scales...and walks upon the water without sinking'. See M.W.de Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan, Amsterdam, 1913, p.58.

The present beast is modelled to appear like a horse, and is very similar in style to the mythical creature found on a well-known group of Yongzheng mark and period doucai porcelain dishes, such as the one in the Palace Museum collection, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, Beijing, 1999, p.238, no.218.

For a similar pale green jade example of a longma carrying books across waves, 18th century, see R.Kleiner, Chinese Jades from the Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, Hong Kong, 1996, pl.193, which was later sold at Christie's New York, 24 March 2011, lot 1507. A related jade carving of a mythical horse carrying books on its back while crossing the sea, Mid Qing dynasty, from the Qing Court Collection, is also illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures in the Palace Museum: Jadeware (III), Hong Kong, 1995, p.110, no.90.

THE LOWENTHAL COLLECTION OF JADES

Hans 'Jack' Lowenthal was born in Frankfurt Germany but at the age of five was brought to Britain with the rest of his family by his father in 1933. Although he briefly returned to Germany in 1934-1937 he thereafter permanently settled London. His father Julius Lowenthal founded the Smokers' and other accessories' business in Germany in 1921 but when he invented the most original semi-automatic lighter in 1928 he named it Colibri. Colibri gift lighters, pens, watches wallets became internationally well-known under the Colibri brand. In 1953, Hans Lowenthal joined Colibri and was the Managing Director for over 25 years. Lowenthal enjoyed designing and creating new products and he holds several important patents. Among the most important of his inventions was incorporating the Piezo-electric concept into a lighter and thereby creating a lighter that never needed a flint or battery, as the ignition spark was created manually. In 1967, he named the Colibri version 'Molectric' (molecular electricity). He also supervised Colibri when commisioned to design and manifacture the 'Golden Gun' and various Colibri products for the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun.

Julius Lowenthal began collecting jades in the 1950s, and one of his first items included a jade axe (Lot 127). Jack inherited his father's interest in jade and stone carvings and continued to collect and regularly attended auctions. In the late 1960s and 1970s, Jack purchased jade carvings from several well-known dealers including Louis Joseph, Hugh Moss, Roger Keverne, Michael Gillingham, and Marchants. Jack was a particularly passionate collector of tactile jade carvings of animals.