A CHINESE CELADON AND RUSSET JADE 'YINGXIONG' GROUP 18TH CENTURY Carved as a recumbent lion dog gazing at an eagle perched on its back, with the mythical beast picked out in a russet section of the stone, the steely-eyed bird of prey carved in celadon, their fur and feathers finely detailed, together with a certificate of authenticity from Gilbert Crutel, Paris, dated 3rd June 1978, 7cm. The imagery depicted is an interpretation of the motif of an eagle, ying, and a bear, xiong, which together form the word yingxiong, homophone for 'hero'. The theme of an eagle and bear first appeared on Western Han dynasty bronze 'champion' vases. This developed throughout later periods into more stylised representations where the bear is often rendered as a mythical beast resembling a lion and the eagle is sometimes portrayed as a phoenix. Cf. A Forsyth and B McElney, Jades from China, p.292, no.292 for a Ming dynasty jade carving of an eagle perched on a lion-like mythical animal in the collection of The Museum of East Asian Art, Bath; see also Sotheby's Hong Kong, 1st December 2016, lot 203 for a 17th/18th century yellow jade carving with the same iconography. 十八世紀 青白玉雕英雄擺件 附：法國Gilbert Critel1978年6月3日的的鑒定證書。 青白玉、瑞獅及鷹互相注視，不怒自威。鷹羽毛及獅尾紋雕琢精細，神態酷肖。鷹、熊諧音“英雄”，此類組合最早可追溯到西漢時期，以鷹與熊的鎮紙形式出現，至明代亦為盛行，有用於一種酒器，稱“英雄合巹杯”取其兩杯相連永不分離之意，是明代時候的創新器型，北京故宮博物院有藏類例，見《故宮博物院藏文物珍品全集·玉器篇》，商務印書館，2003，頁259-261，編號200及201。到了明清時期，熊逐漸被演化為瑞獸，鷹有時會化為鳳凰，巴斯東亞藝術博物館有類似展品，並錄於Angus Forsyth及Brian McElney, 《Jades from China》，巴斯，1994年，頁365，編號292。 清代圓雕動物造型與明代相比更加活靈活現，各種動物雕像造型活潑，動作逼真並含吉祥寓意。此件英雄擺件玉匠巧妙利用玉料原皮色做瑞獅的皮毛，與雄鷹的青白玉色行程鮮明對比，更顯活潑。這類玉雕一般可做玉玩、鎮紙或擺件。