China, 19th century. Finely carved as the pair of twins, both standing, one holding a round wicker box, the other with a bat and patting his companion on the back, both figures depicted with smiling faces, their bald heads surrounded by a mane of long hair.
Provenance: From the collection of Georg Weifert (1850-1937). Thence by descent in the same family. Weifert was a Serbo-Austrian industrialist and the first governor of the Federal Bank of the Kingdom of Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia. Condition: Good condition. Minor natural flaws to the stone.
Weight: 1.547 g (the statue) and 71.4 g (the base) Dimensions: Height 18.5 cm (the figure) and 22.5 cm (including the base)
The carver has made exceptionally good use of the material utilizing the almost flawless sections of the stone to depict the faces and upper bodies, whereas the areas with inclusions were mostly used to depict the long flowing robes of the twins.
The hehe erxian, or the Two Immortals of Harmony and Unity, were believed to preside over happy marriages, and are adaptations of two famous poet-monks of the Tang dynasty, Hanshan and Shide. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the twins were usually depicted holding either a box and a lotus stem or a box and a bat.
With a fitted wood base from the late Qing to Republic era. (2)