清十九世紀 翠玉雕連生貴子枕一對QING DYNASTY, 19TH CENTURY清十九世紀 翠玉雕連生貴子枕一對10 ¼ in. (26 cm.) longMrs. Holmes was one of the foremost collectors of Chinese art in the twentieth century. Mrs. Holmes (1875-1941), née Bettie Fleischmann, was the daughter of Charles Fleischmann, of Fleischmann's Yeast, Gin, and Margarine. In 1896 she married Dr. Christian Rasmus Holmes, a Danish immigrant to the U.S. in 1872, who graduated from Miami Medical College in Cincinnati, Ohio, and later founded the Cincinnati General Hospital in 1903. Much of Mrs. Holmes' collection of Chinese bronzes eventually entered the collection of Avery Brundage, which today represents a third of the bronze holdings of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Mrs. Holmes' collection is now represented in major museum collections worldwide. A similar pillow in the collection of Mr. H. Whitaker, illustrated in the Burlington Fine Arts Club, Catalogue of a Collection of Objects of Chinese Art, London, 1915, pl. XIII (top), may be the same pillow in the collection of Lady Louis Montbatten, London, that was included in the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1935-6, no. 2873. The Whitaker pillow appears to be the same one illustrated by G. Wills, Jade, A Collector's Guide, South Brunswick, New Jersey, 1964, pl. 18. A similar pair of pillows was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 2 December 1976, lot 726 and again from the T.Y. Chao Private and Family Trust Collections, 18 November 1986, lot 193. A related emerald-green jadeite pillow of a kneeling boy with his hands crossed below his head and wearing an apron, from the Imperial Summer Palace, was presented to the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Heber R. Bishop in 1902. Previously dated as Kangxi, it has recently been redated to the 19th century. The theme of a boy holding a lotus is very popular in Chinese art. One of the names for lotus is lian, a homonym of the word 'continuous', and the musical instrument sheng is a homonym for sheng (birth), and so a boy holding a lotus is a pun for the continuous birth of sons. Therefore, this particular imagery of a boy holding both a lotus and a sheng would be extremely auspicious.Details A RARE LARGE PAIR OF JADEITE BOYS PILLOWSQING DYNASTY, 19TH CENTURYEach pillow is modelled as a kneeling boy with its arms crossed across the chest, holding a mouth organ, sheng, in one hand and a lotus sprig in the other below three stems that continue over the shoulder to the edge of the large lotus leaf with radiating veins draped over the back atop two lotus stems that emerge on either side, one bearing a flower, the other a tight bud, with bangles encircling their wrists and ankles. The stone is of a mottled pale greenish-white and apple-green colour with some russet veins.10 ¼ in. (26 cm.) long Provenance Yamanaka & Co., circa 1910-20Mrs. Christian R. Holmes Collection, no. 1437Sold at Christies New York, 21 September 2004, lot 118 Conditions of sale