A WHITE AND RUSSET JADE CARVED MYTHICAL BEAST, BIXIE Han Dynasty (2)A WHITE AND RUSSET JADE CARVED MYTHICAL BEAST, BIXIEHan DynastyCarved in the round as a bixie sitting on its tail, detailed with its mouth open to show its fierce fangs, round bulging eyes and large snout, the semi-translucent stone of white tone with some russet inclusions, box. 4cm (1 5/8in) high. (2).漢 白玉辟邪Provenance:Ku Ngar Antique Ltd., Hong Kong, 1999來源：古雅閣有限公司，香港，1999年The present piece, ingeniously formed as a fantastic mythical beast sitting on its tail, is a tour de force of jade craftsmanship of the Han dynasty. See a closely related Eastern Zhou dynasty jade vase in the shape of a bixie in the Yangzhou Museum, 7.7cm high, illustrated in Yangzhou guancang wenwu jinghua (A Selection of Artefacts in the Yangzhou Museum), Nanjing, 2001, p.37, pl.45. The type continued into the Six Dynasties with varied depictions of the face, compare with a Six Dynasties jade bixie vase in the Beijing Palace Museum, illustrated in the Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum: Jade, vol.4, Beijing, 2011, p.246, pl.304. A Han dynasty white jade mythical beast in the Taipei National Palace Museum has similar tool marks and the feathers fashioned as the present lot but without depicting the hands of the beast, illustrated by Tsai Ching Liang in Betwixt Reality and Illusion: Special Exhibition of Jades from the Warring States Period to the Han Dynasty in the Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2020, p.186; two other Eastern Han dynasty seated bixie in the Nanjing Museum, one carved in amber and the other in jade, both excavated in Jiangsu province, Xuzhou city Tushan Han tombs, are both illustrated by H.P. Xu in The Essence of Ancient Jade: The Collection of the Exhibition in the Jade Hall of Nanjing Museum, Nanjing, 2000, pls.178 and 180.白玉帶皮，圓雕一蹲坐辟邪，虎頭，雙目圓睜，雙角後伏，熊身，右手捧一物，左手撫腿，陰刻雙乳毛髮，後背雕雙翼，手肘與腿肘出鬃毛，以陰線勾勒細部。此類蹲坐形辟邪似有定制，龍角虎頭熊身，背有雙翼，右手捧有一物。揚州博物館藏一件東漢辟邪形玉壺形象與本件極似，高7.7公分，其右手所捧之物清晰可見，應為靈芝一類仙草，推測此壺為藥瓶，見徐良玉編，《揚州館藏文物精華》，南京，2001年，頁37，編號45。此種蹲坐辟邪至魏晉仍有製作，惟開臉稍異，北京故宮博物院藏有一件魏晉玉辟邪瓶可比較之，見《故宮博物院藏品大系·玉器編》，北京，2011年，卷4，頁246，編號304。台北故宮博物院藏漢代白玉帶翼神獸，蹲坐狀，頭部鋌鑽之處理以及背部帶羽之設計與本件頗似，惟不見雙手，見蔡慶良編，《實幻之間：院藏戰國至漢代玉器特展》，台北，2020年，頁186。南京博物院藏有兩件東漢蹲坐辟邪，形態與本件亦似，惟手中無捧物，一件琥珀質，一件玉質，同時出土於徐州土山漢墓，見徐湖平編，《古玉菁華：南京博物院玉器館展品選萃》，南京，2000年，編號178及180。