Each, 29.4 cm. （11 3/8 in.） wide

Property from the Hongzhen Tang Collection, Hong Kong

Yamanaka & Company, the Asian art firm founded by the ubiquitous Japanese dealer Yamanaka Sadajiro （1866-1936）, was one of the most important dealers in the Western world in the early 20th century. Son of an already prominent antique dealer, he joined the business at the young age of 12 and attended studied English at a commercial school at night between 1883 and 1886. Yamanaka sailed to Canada in 1894 and arrived in New York in 1894； finally opened for business at 20 West 27th Street in 1895. In 1912, Yamanaka famously acquired much of the collection of Puwei （d.1935） the Manchu Prince Gong, who was fearful that soldiers under Yuan Shikai （1859-1916） might loot his palace. Yamanaka sold it through the American Art Galleries in February 1913.

Mrs. Christian Rasmus Holmes （1875-1941） was the daughter of Charles Fleischmann, of Fleischmann’s Yeast, Gin, and Margarine, and was one of the foremost American collectors of Chinese art in the 20th century. In 1896, she married Dr. Christian Rasmus Holmes, a Danish immigrant to the United States of America in 1872, who graduated from Miami Medical College in Cincinnati, Ohio, and later founded the Cincinnati General Hospital in 1903. Mrs. Holmes’ collection is now represented in many museum collections worldwide, with much of her Chinese bronzes eventually forming the current collection of Avery Brundage, which today is housed in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. The rest of her collection, including the present lot, has been dispersed through public auction.

Jadeite was a very rare and expensive commodity in the 18th century, prior to the Qianlong emperor’s military campaign in the 1770s which allowed direct access to the source of jadeite in Burma. So precious were these jadeite commodities that during the 18th century, there were only small number of small jadeite objects, such as belt hooks and court necklaces which were prevalent at court； there is little doubt that the precious raw material was highly regarded, as they were used sparingly to fashion important imperial objects such as seals used by the emperor. The present lot would have probably been considered a great symbol of opulence and wealth and could probably only have been commissioned by an individual of great authority, considering their huge size and excessive use of the precious raw material. Each of the playful kneeling boys is carrying a stem of lotus and a mouth organ. Boys carrying lotus or lian （蓮） and holding a bamboo mouth organ or sheng （笙） forms the homophone liansheng guizi （連生貴子） which translates as the auspicious saying of ‘may you continuously give birth to distinguished sons’.

Compare a closely related example of a similar large pillow in the shape of an infant boy dated 19th Century （accession no.02.18.426） which is reputedly from the collection of the Summer Palace, bequeathed by Heber R. Bishop to the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 1902. Compare also another similar jadeite carving of two playful boys riding on an elephant （accession no.21.175.113） also in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Provenance：
Yamanaka & Co., between 1910s and 1920s
Mrs. Christian Rasmus Holmes Collection, no.1437
Christie’s New York, 21 September 2004, lot 118

Price estimate:
HKD: 2, 500, 000 - 3, 500, 000
USD: 320, 500 - 448, 700

Auction Result:
HKD: --