A CHINESE CELADON JADE CARVING OF A MELON

QIANLONG 1736-95

The large fruit issuing from a gnarled stem, with leaves and tendrils curling around the elongated ovoid body, a single squirrel crouched to one side, the stone with russet-brown markings, 7cm.

Provenance: Lt. Col. Edmund Whitehead (1870-1945), an interpreter for the British Army who served in Beijing c.1890, and thence by descent.