R8924
£32,000
Description
Group of two recumbent, curled, ‘kissing’ cats, their feet touching each other, their ears folded back, the stone pure white.
2 ¼ inches, 5.8 cm long.
Qianlong, 1736-1795.
Condition
Available on request.
Provenance & Additional Information
- From a private Hudson Valley collection, purchased in New York, circa 1980.
- A similar group is illustrated by Jonathan Woolf, Angela McAteer & Colin Sheaf in The Woolf Collection of Chinese Jade, no. 111, p. 228; another is illustrated by Robert P. Youngman in The Youngman Collection, Chinese Jades from Neolithic to Qing, no. 97, p. 96; a group of three cats was included by Marchant in their 85th anniversary exhibition of Chinese Jades from Tang to Qing, 2010, no. 97, p. 132; a similar group of two cats ‘kissing’ was sold by Sotheby’s Hong Kong in their auction of Playthings from the Collection of Edward T. Chow, 27th May 2014, lot no. 88, pp. 84/5.
- The cat, mao, is homophonous with the word for 80-90 years old and is thus a symbol of longevity.
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