Group of eight turquoise animal carvings

A group of eight miniature animals carved from turquoise, comprising a rabbit, a ram, a boar, two birds with outstretched wings, and three mythical beasts. The animals are realistically carved and each animal is drilled through. The colours of the turquoise stone range from a light blue to a pale green mottled metallic grey colour.

•  The drill holes on these exquisitely carved animals indicate that they were made as beads, perhaps for the type of elaborate pectoral ornament that was popular at the time. The closest comparison is a carving of a mythical beast (bixie), in the Peony Collection, similar to one of the present pieces, which is dated by McElney and Forsyth to the early Six dynasties (third century AD).1 Parallels found in jade and crystal suggest an earlier dating, from the Shang to the Western Zhou dynasty.2

1 Forsyth, A. and McElney, B., Jades from China, The Museum of East Asian Art, Bath 1994, no. 168, p. 267
2 Ip Yee, Chinese Jade Carving, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1983, nos. 42 + 43, pp. 72-3