International Sale: ANIMALIA: Archaic Jades from Ancient China

This auction brings together 40 archaic Chinese jades devoted to the animal world real, imagined, and transformed through thousands of years of Chinese carving. From the enigmatic creatures of the Hongshan culture to the taut, highly stylized animals of the Shang and Zhou dynasties and the more sculptural forms of the Han, the selection reveals just how inventive early jade carvers could be. At its heart is a remarkable bestiary of creatures charged with ritual, symbolic, and protective meaning. Some are reduced to almost abstract silhouettes, others rendered with striking vitality and personality; many retain beautifully altered surfaces shaped...