16 cm. （6 1/4 in.）high

The present figure appears to be that of the luohan Abheda. He was one of the sixteen luohan and is depicted snapping his fingers as he thought to have read and understood the whole cannon of scriptures in the click of a finger.
Jade carvings of luohan were an immensely popular subject during the 18th century，probably due to the popularisation of woodblock prints depicting the sixteen luohan which are in turn thought to have been inspired by the portraits of the sixteen luohan executed by the painter Guanxiu （832–912 A.D.）. In 1757，during a visit of the Shengying monastery in Hangzhou，the Qianlong Emperor saw the paintings of the sixteen luohan，attributed to Guanxiu，and was so enthusiastic that he composed poems and commissioned a copy of them to be painted by Ding Guanpeng. In 1764，the abbot of the monastery had Guanxiu’s paintings engraved on a marble stupa which the Emperor then ordered to have replicated in Beijing. The original Guanxiu portraits are now lost，but during his reign，the Qianlong Emperor had artisans reproduce the portraits in a variety of different media. Perhaps the best known of these reproductions is a set of sixteen luohan jade-inlaid screens in the Yunguanglou，Building of Luminous Clouds，in the Forbidden City. The screens are illustrated and the subject matter is discussed at length by N. Berliner，The Emperor’s Private Paradise，Connecticut，pp. 156-175.

Provenance：
Christie's，South Kensington，11st November 2011，lot 1152

Price estimate:
HKD: 1,000,000 - 1,500,000
USD: 129,200 - 193,800

Auction Result:
HKD: --