depicted as a young boy resting on his front with the head turned to the left, the hands depicted placed together at the front and grasping a long stem issuing a lotus bloom atop his back, the white and russet stone skilfully worked with russet streaks concentrating on the reverse

The present figure bears resemblance to figures of flying boys with billowing scarves which were in turn a development of carvings of flying asparas created from the Tang dynasty. Compare a figure of a boy reclining under a large lotus spray, attributed to the Ming dynasty, from the Zhirouzhai collection, included in the exhibition Exquisite Jade Carving: Figures, Animals, Ornaments, University Museum and Art Gallery, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1996, cat. no. 20; a figure of a boy in a related pose, but without the flower, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum. Jade. Ming Dynasty, vol. 6, Beijing, 2010, pl. 289; and another sold in our New York rooms, 10th/11th April 1986, lot 214.