A WHITE JADE 'ELEPHANT AND BOY' GROUP Song/Yuan Dynasty (2)PROPERTY FROM THE CHENYUEZHAI COLLECTION (LOTS 23-29)塵月齋藏品 (拍品編號23-29）A WHITE JADE 'ELEPHANT AND BOY' GROUPSong/Yuan DynastyCarved as an elephant standing foursquare, its furled ears and curved tusks naturalistically depicted, with a boy crouching atop the elephant and holding a vase by a magpie, the lustrously polished stone of even pale green tone with light brown markings, box. 5.2cm (2in) wide. (2).宋/元 白玉雕太平有象把件Provenance:S. Marchant and Son, LondonThe Chenyuezhai CollectionExhibited and illustrated:S. Marchant & Son, Exhibition of Post-Archaic Chinese Jades, London, 1995, no.79來源：馬錢特，倫敦塵月齋收藏展覽及著錄：馬錢特，Exhibition of Post-Archaic Chinese Jades，倫敦，1995年，編號79The elephant is symbolic of strength and wisdom and when combined with a vase as in the present piece forms the rebus of 'wishing for peaceful times', taiping you xiang. The auspicious imagery was therefore very popular at Court and used widely as a decorative motif in various mediums. It is unusual to find an elephant group such as the present lot with an attendant boy and a bird on the elephant's back, but for a much earlier example of this design, see a Liao dynasty jade 'boy and bird' group in the National Museum of China, illustrated in Zhongguo gudai yuqi yishu [The Ancient Art of Jade Carving in China], Beijing, 2011, pp.310-311.玉質白中閃青，潤澤可愛，圓雕一象，回首探鼻，鼻孔呈如意形，象背圓雕一瓶，瓶側雕一童子，另一側雕一鳥。 象馱寶瓶寓意太平有象。象背上所馱之鳥，或為喜鵲或為鶻，中國國家博物館藏有一件遼代玉雕架鶻童子可資參考，其童子開臉與本件頗似，見呂章申編，《中國古代玉器藝術》，北京，2011年，頁310及311。