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- Charming carving of a round-faced boy holding a cat with a bushy tail. The boy wears a jacket tied with belt and loose trousers. Clever use has been made of the dark grey area in the stone, which shows only the cat and the boy�s hands in contrast to the rest of the body. This use of the different col�ours in jade is known as qiaose and was a popular concept during the Song dynasty.
XIX Stork, Deer and Acanthus
greyish white jade with brown veining, length 7.5 cm Ming
McElney Collection
A combination of two symbols of longevity, the deer and the stork. The two animals share a spray of acanthus leaves, holding it in their mouth and beak. The motif showing an animal holding a branch in its mouth was very popular during the Ming.
XX Stemcup
greenish white jade with slight grey markings, height 11.6 cm Probably Ming McElney Collection
Beautifully hollowed stemcup with plain smooth sur�face except for incised scroll borders on foot and mouth rim. Similar decorative borders are known on blue and white porcelains of the Yuan and Ming pe�riods.
XXI Openwork Box
pale greenish white jade with slight brown markings,
length 6.1 cm
Late Ming - early Qing
McElney Collection
A pierced latticework box which may have been a pomander. One side depicts a mythical animal, the other a pair of sheep under a plantain tree, both on a trellis pattern. Motifs like this occur in the first half of the seventeenth century.
XXII Openwork Plaque
pale grey jade, length 10 cm Late Ming - early Qing McElney Collection
Rectangular openwork plaque depicting Xi Wangmu (Goddess of the West) seated under a pine tree. An attendant bearing a basket of the peaches of longe�vity arrives on a cloud. Xi Wangmu is accompanied by a crane, which she uses as a charger. Other sym�bols in the background include a tortoise and fun�gus. The motifs found on this plaque are common in the seventeenth century and are related to Daoism.
XXIII Dragon Carp
grey jade with brown area, length 8 cm Late Ming McElney Collection
Dragon-headed carp emerging from crested waves. According to legend the Yellow River carps which make their way up stream and succeed in passing
above the rapids of Longmen (Dragon Gate) in Henan become transformed into dragons. This trans�formation also symbolized the student who has passed his examinations with distinction.
XXIV Lotus and Fish
greenish white jade, height 4.9 cm Late Ming - early Qing McElney Collection
The fish holds in its mouth three lotus stems, whose leaves curl back over on its spine. The flower of the lotus rests on the fish�s nose. The fish-and-lotus motif was extremely popular during the Ming but goes back to earlier periods. While this motif con�tinued into the Qing, the fine relief carving of the veins of the leaves and the fish�s fin in this carving suggests a seventeenth-century date.
XXV Phoenix with a Spray of Peach and Lingzhi
pure white jade with russet markings, length 8.7 cm Early Qing McElney Collection
Phoenix holding a branch of peach in its beak with a lingzhi fungus of immortality depicted on the other side. The finely carved bird, with flat bottom, shows one side with russet markings and the other being pure white.
XXVI Gui Vessel
pale greenish white jade with brown areas, height 5.9 cm, width 12.5 cm Early - middle Qing
Given anonymously in memory of Sir JamesThorn- ton, C.B., M.B., B.A.
AGGV
This vessel has a tapered spreading rim with raised lugs and bovine masks in high relief and archaistic dragons in low relief in between. The handles are decorated with dragon heads and pendant flangs; the body is ribbed, the footrim splayed. The brown areas enhance this imitation of an archaic bronze vessel.
XXVII Foliated Dish
translucent white jade, diameter 8 cm India (17th-18th century)
McElney Collection
Extremely thinly carved foliated dish, its handle formed by a leaf. The extreme thinness allows for a high degree of translucency and enables one to see the curved veins; it gives the impression that the cup is floating on water. Moghul jades were first carved in the India-Pakistan area in the seventeenth century and later were brought as tribute to Em�peror Qianlong, who greatly admired them and had the style copied in his own workshops.
XXVIII Dish
greyish white jade, diameter 13.5 cm Qing
McElney Collection
Six-lobed dish decorated with two catfish swimming
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