China, 25-220 AD. Deftly carved around the upper surface of the pebble with the four guardians, including a dragon, a tiger, a two-headed turtle, and a vermillion bird, all emerging from scrolling clouds. The flat underside is finely incised with an abstract, scrolling design. The semi-translucent stone is of an even celadon color with opaque russet, creamy white, and dark brown areas.

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 surface wear, signs of weathering and erosion, nibbling, and a few minuscule chips to exposed areas. The stone with natural fissures, some of which have developed into thin hairline cracks.

Weight: 201.9 g
Dimensions: Length 8.2 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 dragons and three-headed turtle carved in relief, dated to the Eastern Han dynasty, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, image number K1C001328N000000000PAC.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Related
Auction: Bonhams Hong Kong, 30 May 2017, lot 54
Price: HKD 2,340,000 or approx. EUR 314.000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: An exceptionally rare jade mythical bird scroll weight, Eastern Han Dynasty or later
Expert remark: Compare the function. Note the smaller size (6.5 cm).