An unusual Chinese dark brown-black jade carving of a Lohan 笑狮罗汉玉雕 Ming dynasty or earlier ????

Finely carved, depicting a corpulent luohan, probably Vijraputra, in semi-kneeling position, his broad face with serene and joyful expression under a scrolled diadem holding his long, curled hair, hoop earrings to his elongated ears, both hands clasping a playful small Chinese lion; the stone of a dark brown black with areas of beige and grey; later carved wood stand, brocade box

H: 3 1/4 in. (jade)

NOTE:

The present jade is a rare early depiction in jade of a foreigner, in this case, a Lohan. Compare the soft polish of the carving and similar facial features including a broad nose, to the figure of a foreigner with mythical beast, sold in these rooms, April 8, 2021, lot 86. See also the figure of a western groom tending a horse in the Avery Brundage Collection, Asian Arts Museum, San Francisco, B64J388. Compare also the larger figure of Fung-Kan, with fluttering scarves and leonine beast, dated to the late Ming dynasty, in Stanley Charles Nott, "Chinese Jade Throughout the Ages", Rutland, 1972, pl. CXLVII. See also Liu Yang and Edmund Capon, "Translucent World, Chinese Jade from the Forbidden City, Sydney, 2000, no. 48, for a small figure of a dancing foreigner, dated to the Tang dynasty; and a foreigner with vase, dated to the 17th/18th century, sold at Christie's New York, March 18, 2008, lot 420. Compare also a kneeling foreigner, from the collection of William S. Arnett, dated Tang-Early Ming dynasty, sold at Christie's, New York, September 12, 2018, lot 903.

PROVENANCE:

The Gerald Godfrey Private Collection of Fine Chinese Jades, sold Christie's Hong Kong, October 30, 1995, lot 871 (as Song-Ming dynasty)

S. Berstein & Co., San Francisco

Property from a private collection, Bethesda, Maryland, acquired from the above, June 26, 2001 (as Ming Dynasty)

EXHIBITED:

Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, California, "Chinese Jade, The Image from Within" 1986, catalogue, no. 61

San Antonio Museum of Art, Texas, "Reverence of a Stone, An Exhibition of Chinese Jade from the Gerald Godfrey Collection",1986

The Dayton Art Institute, Ohio, January 1989 "Stones of Virtue, Chinese Jades from the Gerald Godfrey Collection", catalogue no. 79, pl.11

Palm Springs Desert Museum, California, "Magic, Art and Order, Jade in Chinese Culture", February-April 1990, catalogue no. 30

LITERATURE:

Philip Cardeiro, "Chinese Jade, The Image from Within", Arts of Asia, November-December 1985, pp. 151-154, fig. 6