Sold for €9,750
including Buyer's Premium
China, 17th-18th century. Carved from a large pebble, the pachyderm lies with its front feet extending outward and its back feet tucked underneath, its tail flicks up towards its head which is turned sharply to the right. Masterfully carved, the elephant’s eyes, lashes, and brows are finely incised with the folds of its ears, its wrinkly skin, and its three-toed feet excellently detailed. The superbly polished and partly translucent stone is of a celadon tone with opaque cream and russet shadings, icy veins, and dark grayish-green clouds.
Provenance: Spink & Son, London (according to the label). Property of an American Collector, acquired from the above. Sotheby’s New York, 24 March 1998, lot 383, offered at a low estimate of USD 10,000 or approx. EUR 17,000 (converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing). Thomas ‘Gene’ Worrell (1919-2006) was a newspaper owner and art collector based in Charlottesville, Virginia. During his youth, Worrell attended college, completing a degree at the George Washington School of Law, and worked for the FBI during World War II as a special agent. In 1949, he began a career as a newspaperman and, with his wife, founded The Virginia Tennessean in Bristol. This marked the beginning of Worrell Newspapers, Inc., which became one of the largest chains of small dailies in the United States. The office of the Worrell Investment Company was home to The Worrell Collection, where the present lot was exhibited until 2022. The only collection of its magnitude in the country, it included sculpture, paintings, and antique Chinese jades. Parts of the jade collection were published by John Ayers in ‘A Jade Menagerie: Creatures Real and Imaginary from the Worrell Collection’, London, 1993.
Condition: Very good condition with minor wear and few minuscule nibbles to edges. The stone with natural fissures, some of which may have developed into small hairline cracks.
Weight: 1,343 g
Dimensions: Length 14.6 cm
China, 17th-18th century. Carved from a large pebble, the pachyderm lies with its front feet extending outward and its back feet tucked underneath, its tail flicks up towards its head which is turned sharply to the right. Masterfully carved, the elephant’s eyes, lashes, and brows are finely incised with the folds of its ears, its wrinkly skin, and its three-toed feet excellently detailed. The superbly polished and partly translucent stone is of a celadon tone with opaque cream and russet shadings, icy veins, and dark grayish-green clouds.
Provenance: Spink & Son, London (according to the label). Property of an American Collector, acquired from the above. Sotheby’s New York, 24 March 1998, lot 383, offered at a low estimate of USD 10,000 or approx. EUR 17,000 (converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing). Thomas ‘Gene’ Worrell (1919-2006) was a newspaper owner and art collector based in Charlottesville, Virginia. During his youth, Worrell attended college, completing a degree at the George Washington School of Law, and worked for the FBI during World War II as a special agent. In 1949, he began a career as a newspaperman and, with his wife, founded The Virginia Tennessean in Bristol. This marked the beginning of Worrell Newspapers, Inc., which became one of the largest chains of small dailies in the United States. The office of the Worrell Investment Company was home to The Worrell Collection, where the present lot was exhibited until 2022. The only collection of its magnitude in the country, it included sculpture, paintings, and antique Chinese jades. Parts of the jade collection were published by John Ayers in ‘A Jade Menagerie: Creatures Real and Imaginary from the Worrell Collection’, London, 1993.
Condition: Very good condition with minor wear and few minuscule nibbles to edges. The stone with natural fissures, some of which may have developed into small hairline cracks.
Weight: 1,343 g
Dimensions: Length 14.6 cm
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