Until 1st Dec, 2024

Buy it now

 
 

A CELADON AND RUSSET JADE ‘FOUR GUARDIANS’ BELT, EASTERN HAN DYNASTY
LOT 34

Buy now for €32,000.00



Lot details

Published: Jean-Paul Desroches, The Beginning of the World. Dragons, Phoenix and Other Chimera, Lienart, Paris, 2020, p. 34-35, no. 11.

China, 25-220 AD. The belt comprising eight plaques of rectangular form with rounded corners and an end piece, each finely carved and pierced in low relief with beasts of the four guardians emerging from clouds, including the dragon, the tiger, the vermillion bird, and the turtle. The individual sections connected by incised gilt metal joints (of modern make). The semi-translucent stones are of a deep celadon color with russet and cloudy white inclusions.

Provenance: From the Sam and Myrna Myers Collection. Sam and Myrna are first generation Americans, who shared a taste for collecting beautiful objects of art. On a trip to Ascona, Switzerland, the couple stumbled into a small antique shop which started their journey of collecting antiques. When Sam Myers was sent to Paris by his law firm in the mid-1960s, he and his wife Myrna became so enamored with the city that they decided to make it their home. There, over the course of 50 years, they built an extraordinary art collection, and in 1976, Myrna opened a gallery in Paris specializing in Asian art. Their collection spans a wide range of precious objects from Chinese jades, ceramics, textiles, Indian ivory carvings, to Japanese clothing and lacquer, some of which was exhibited in the Kimbell Art Museum. Part of their collection was sold at Sotheby’s, London ‘Two Americans in Paris, The Collection of Sam and Myrna Myers’, on 4 November 2021. The couple also worked together with jade expert Filippo Salviati to create one of the most outstanding jade collections globally and authored several books on jade, including ‘Radiant Stones’ (2000), ‘The Language of Adornment’ (2002) and ‘Genèse de l’empire céleste’ (2020).
Condition: Very good condition with ancient wear, signs of weathering and erosion, surface scratches around the joints. The stone with natural fissures, some of which may have developed into thin hairline cracks. The gilt metal joints with corrosion and surface wear.

Weight: 516 g
Dimensions: Length 80.7 cm

The Four Guardians (Chin. ‘sixiang’) are mythological creatures appearing among the Chinese constellations along the ecliptic and viewed as the guardians of the four cardinal directions. They are the Azure Dragon of the East, the Vermilion Bird of the South, the White Tiger of the West, and the Black Tortoise of the North. Each of the creatures is most closely associated with a cardinal direction and a color, but also additionally represents other aspects, including a season of the year, an emotion, virtue, and one of the Chinese ‘five elements’. Each has been given its own individual traits, origin story, and a reason for being. Symbolically, and as part of spiritual and religious belief and meaning, these creatures have been culturally important across countries in the Sinosphere.

Literature comparison:
Compare a related jade belt buckle with a four divine beast pattern, dated to the Eastern Han dynasty, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, image number K1C001328N000000000PAC.

 

Natural Light Images for Logged-in Users Only

You can find images of this item taken under natural daylight below. Click on an image to zoom in or save.

If there are no natural light images for this item, please email us at office@zacke.at or use the request form below.

   


Log in or sign up to view the natural light images.

Click here to request more information on this lot.

 
 

How to Buy Online

You must log in or create an online account in order to buy items from the shop.

Click the red 'Buy it Now' button to buy this item. You will then be able to download your invoice and receive instructions about how to pay. Prices include Buyer's Premium. 

If you would like to buy multiple items at the same time, add the items you want to your cart. You will then be able to check out with multiple items simultaneously.

Items in your cart are not reserved. Please complete the purchase process promptly to secure the items.

How to Buy Offline

If you would like to buy one of these items outside of the online shop, please contact us at office@zacke.at or +43 (1) 532 04 52.

Our Terms and Conditions

As part of our ongoing efforts to keep our auctions fair and transparent, we encourage you to read our terms and conditions thoroughly. We urge you to read through §34-50) to ensure you understand them. These terms are specifically designed to protect all serious and committed buyers from bidding against non-payers who attempt to inflate prices without the intent of paying their auction bills.

For further reading about non-payers at auction, go here: https://www.zacke.at/aboutnonpayers/.

The main points include the following:

  • Bidders must complete their due diligence and clarify all questions about the objects before the auction. After the auction, Zacke will not answer questions from bidders unless the purchase price has been paid in full. Of course, this does not apply to questions concerning shipping, insurance, customs, etc.
  • A sale cancellation of any kind after the fall of the hammer is not possible. The only exception to this fundamental rule is our guarantee of authenticity [the Guarantee].
  • A Guarantee Claim, however, can only be raised after the purchase price has been paid in full by the buyer and within 45 days after the auction day.

If you have any questions about our policies, please get in touch with us at office@zacke.at.

By placing a bid, you agree to our Terms of Auction and Terms and Conditions.