Chinese Standing Figure of a Phoenix

Pale green bird with fierce brow, hooked beak and rust-colored feather lines.

This standing figure of a phoenix in jade is from China, and dates to the 20th century. Jade is valued in China for its hardness and soft polish, and carvers have fashioned it into birds, animals and ornaments for millennia. Seated bird with a hooked beak, round eye and swept-back wings incised with scrolls and long feather lines picked out in reddish brown. The tail fans out flat beneath. The surface is smooth, pale green and slightly translucent. It is 2 inches wide, 0.75 deep and 2.5 high.

Fierce of beak, tidy of feather, and unhurried.