Object lessonsgallery
Object lessons: from a Papuan hornbill head to a rare jade carving from New York's Met Museum
Our pick of highlights from upcoming auctions and fairs
10 September 2019
The philanthropists Florence and Herbert Irving gave New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art around 1,300 Asian works of art in 2015, including this Qing dynasty celadon and russet jade carving of birds in a mountainous landscape. “The motif of the quail and millet depicted on this exceptional jade boulder is commonly seen on porcelains and painted metalwares of the Yongzheng and Qianlong periods, however it is incredibly rare to see the subject applied to a jade surface,” says Angela McAteer, Sotheby’s head of the Chinese works of art department in New York. The Irvings began collecting Asian art in the 1970s mostly via auction houses, and bought this piece in the mid-1980s from Spink and Son in London. Around the same time, James Watt, then the curator of the Met’s department of Asian art, introduced the couple to the museum’s director Philippe de Montebello, who encouraged them to join the board. The collectors agreed that any works in their gift could be resold to finance future acquisitions of Asian art. Celadon and russet jade ‘quail and millet’ boulder, Qing dynasty (1644-1912). Chinese Art from the Metropolitan Museum of Art: the Florence and Herbert Irving Gift, Sotheby’s, New York, 10 September. Estimate $150,000-$250,000 (©Sotheby's)