97 A pair of very fine jade pricket candlesticks, each is in the form of a duck with outspread wings; its head is finely detailed and its feathers well incised. The duck stands on a tortoise, with its head raised, about which two snakes curl. The tortoise swims on incised waves amid rocks to the interior of a dish. The everted sides of the dish are worked in low relief with a lappet band and the flange rim is incised with key-fret. The dish is supported on three cloud feet. The stone is a fine spinach-green tone. Qianlong period Height: 10 1/2”, 26.7 cm For a similar example in the Lady Lever Art Gallery collection, see Nott, Chinese Jade throughout the Ages: A Review of its Characteristics, Decoration, Folklore and Symbolism, pl. XCI; for a further pair, see Wills, Jade of the East, no. 123; and for single examples, see Wan, Wang and Lu, Daily Life in the Forbidden City, p. 151; and Wong and Goh, Imperial Life in the Qing Dynasty: Treasures from the Shenyang Palace Museum, China, p. 97.