MING DYNASTY (1368-1644) OR EARLIER

As early as the Han dynasty (206BC-AD220), bears have been perceived as enlightened creatures that reside in spiritual mountains. It was believed that they possess the ability to intermediate between heaven and earth. Depictions of bears, as seen on this jade carving, show them as unthreatening, harmless creatures. See a similarly carved bear-shaped support dated to the Eastern Han/Eastern Jin dynasty from the Avery Brundage Collection in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Inv. no. B65 J2, illustrated in Sacred Mountains in Chinese Art by Kiyohiko Munakata, University of Illinois Press, Chicago, 1991, p. 70, pl. 16. Another jade receptacle carved in the form of a bear is in the National Palace Museum Taipei, Inv. no. 002842N000000000. This was made during the Qianlong period (1736-1795) as an homage to antiquity, and it is inscribed with a six-character mark reading 'da Qing Qianlong fanggu', which may be translated as 'made in the Qianlong period in imitation of antiquity'.