Luduan are legendary beasts believed to be capable of detecting the truth, traveling great distances in short amounts of time, and fluent in all languages. Often mistaken for qilin which have hooved feet or bixie with pairs of horns and wings, luduan are defined by their rounder bodies and clawed paws. Due to their sense of justice and ability to distinguish good and evil, luduan are sometimes represented in scholarly jade carvings, such as the current lot, to symbolise the scholar's intelligence and wisdom. Small jade carvings of this type were therefore highly appropriate for the scholar's desks, where in addition to being palm-sized play things handled during contemplation, they could also serve as functional paperweights.|The rare yellow jade stone, highly prized for its colour, is accentuated by the careful carving of the mythical beast in the round. Furthermore, the carver has skilfully used the dark brown inclusions to elevate the contours of the creature's body, thereby imparting a naturalistic sense of liveliness. |Compare the carving of the present lot to two greyish-white jade carvings of a mythical beast, included in the exhibition Chinese Jade Animals, Hong Kong, 1996, cat. nos. 147 and 150.|雕一甪端。黃玉質地，略有褐斑。此獸呈蹲伏狀，身體屈曲，頭擱前肢上呈回首狀，S形粗眉，眼睛圓睜，如意形鼻，雙耳貼於頭兩側，頭上有獨角，脊椎突起，尾部向上卷。造型生動，玉質瑩潤，實屬玲瓏巧作。|甪端乃中國古代傳說中的神獸，與麒麟相似，頭上有一角，宋《符瑞志》曰：「甪端日行萬八千里，又曉四夷之語，聖主在位，明達方外幽遠，則奉書而至。」因此故宮太和殿兩邊均有甪端護衛在側，肅穆威嚴，以顯示皇帝為有道明君，身在寶座而曉天下事，做到八方歸順，四海來朝，聖明地治理天下；在官方象徵光明正大、秉公執法，而民間則象徵吉祥如意、風調雨順；因此為元明清流行題材之一。此玉獸常用來陳設，也可作為鎮紙使用。|香港藝術館曾於1996年《中國肖生玉雕》展覽中出展兩件明代的灰白玉雕瑞獸，其雕刻手法可與本獸作比較，見圖錄編號147及150。