AN AMETHYST CARVING OF A GOAT AND TWO YOUNG, SANYANG19th century The stone finely carved in the round as three recumbent goats, sanyang , each with almond-shaped eyes, floppy ears, a pair of curved horns relaxed against the neck, the parent's head turned backward toward the young. 7cm (2 6/8in) long. 十九世紀 紫晶三羊開泰 Provenance : Sir Michael Oppenheimer (3rd Baronet, 1924-2020) and Lady Helen Oppenheimer DD (1926-2022), and thence by descent 來源 ：Michael Oppenheimer 爵士（三代從男爵，1924-2020年）與Helen Oppenheimer爵士夫人（1926-2022年）舊藏，並由後人保存迄今 The collection belonged to Sir Michael and Lady Oppenheimer DD (3rd Baronet, 1924-2020). Sir Michael's maternal grandparents were Sir Robert Grenville Harvey, 2nd Baronet (1856-1931) and Lady Emily Blanche Harvey (1872-1935) of Langley Park, Buckinghamshire. The Chinese art collection can be, at least in part, traced back to Langley Park, Buckinghamshire, home to the Harvey Baronets from 1788 until 1945, as demonstrated in a pre-1945 photograph showing Lot 122, the cloisonné enamel tripod 'elephant' incense burner, Qianlong. Sir Michael Oppenheimer's paternal family was the well-known South African mining family. The baronetcy was created in 1921 for Bernard Oppenheimer, Chairman of the South African Diamond Corporation for setting up diamond sorting factories to employ wounded ex-servicemen after the First World War. The family has been involved with De Beers over many decades. Lady Oppenheimer DD (1926-2022) was a distinguished moral and philosophical theologian, with a particular interest in the ethics pertaining to personal relations. The character for sheep or goat, yang (羊), appeared as early as the Han dynasty and is homophone with the word for auspicious or lucky. By the Qing period, the image of sheep had be heavily associated with the sun, warm, positive, masculine force in Chinese cosmology, also pronounced yang . The development of the sheep into a group of three, sanyang , is a reference to the favourable arrival of spring, since the phrase sanyang kaitai (三陽開泰), points to the period between the winter solstice and the New Year. This was the period when the warm yang energy is emerging, as detailed in the ancient Chinese classic of prognostication, the Yijing , or 'Book of Changes'.