Mythic beast

A mythic beast has been carved from grayish-green jade with yellowish veins, enhanced on the surface with brown dyes. The animal is lying down, with its head slightly raised. The carver has lightened the figure with openwork where the whiskers hang down to the chest and in the space between mane and back. Rounded relief depicts the facial features; shallow relief is seen mainly in C spirals on the haunches, shoulders, and tail. Dense parallel striations embellish the eyebrows, mane, hind knees, and tail, which gracefully sweeps up over the rump, dividing into three flat leaf-shaped strands. The four paws of the beast are worked in relief.

The 1972 publication dated this piece to the medieval period, although no archaeological evidence of this type of jade has been found from that period. The careful design and sophisticated execution of this piece are typical of Qing jade craft