Leaping Liu Hai

Official School, 1770–1860
Height: 6.2 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.76/2.25 and 2.22 cm (oval)
Stopper: jadeite; vinyl collar

Provenance:
Gerd Lester (1986)
The Mary and George Bloch Collection
Sotheby's, Hong Kong, 26 May 2014, lot 1092
Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd

Published:
Kleiner, Yang and Shangraw 1994, no. 225
Treasury 2, no. 289

Exhibited:
Hong Kong Museum of Art, March–June 1994
National Museum, Singapore, November 1994–February 1995
University Museum and Art Gallery, University of Hong Kong, 1999

Chalcedony; well hollowed; with a concave lip and recessed flat foot surrounded by a protruding broad, flat foot rim; the natural markings in the stone edited on one side to create a scene of the immortal Liu Hai leaping and holding over his head his string of cash, one end of which is in the mouth of his three-legged toad set on a rock, all beneath the midday sun.