Jade plaque of a mythical beast

A jade plaque of a mythical beast, the animal depicted in recumbent position with its head turned over its body.  The head is detailed with a horn, a beard and widely bulging eyes.  The flanks are adorned with two typical wisps.  The bifid tail is finely engraved.  The stone is of pale celadon tone with some lighter markings.

Being totally flat on the back, this plaque probably originally formed part of a large decorative panel.  The mythical animal concerned here represents a luduan, a legendary unicorn beast capable of distinguishing between good and evil.  The luduan is often misidentified as a qilin due to the similarity in style. The qilin is normally depicted with a dragon-like head with customary twin horns and four legs ending in ox-like hoofs.  A jade carving of a luduan, with similar single-horned head, scale-less body and clawed paws but mistakenly identified as a qilin, is in the collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum and dated to the late Ming or early Qing dynasty, 17th – 18th century.[1]

Provenance:
Private collection, UK.  This plaque was on view at the Graves Art Gallery in Sheffield, UK in the 1970’s and 1980’s and subsequently on view at the Museum of East Asian Art in Bath from 1988 until 2019.

1    Lin, James, C.S. The Immortal Stone- Chinese Jades from the Neolithic period to the twentieth century, Cambridge, The Fitzwilliam Museum, 2009, cat. 43, p. 54

清中期/白玉甪端饰板

此板整体造型呈现为一只伏卧并回首的甪端，仅正面抛光，侧面及背面呈哑光状，由此可判断其曾经或为屏风类家具之上的装饰品。甪端整体线雕简约有力，面部特征明显：怒目，独角以及獠牙刻画细致。其腿部装饰火焰纹，足部呈现爪状而非蹄状，这使其得以区别于麒麟与獬豸。尾部以及口部毛发雕刻细腻，呈随风飘动状，颇具动感。比较一例：

来源：英国私人收藏

参展：英国谢菲尔德Graves画廊，1970s-1980s

英国巴斯东亚艺术博物馆，1988-2019