Includes one large carved gourd cricket cage with auspicious motifs with a ivory rim and cover (some hairline cracking to ivory), another shaped gourd with trumpet neck and globular with carved wooden rim and cover, a smaller gourd with ivory rim and a reticulated carved ivory cover with floral design (central carved ivory piece is loose from cover), a hard stone cage with hard stone rim and reticulated ivory cover painted green (slight loss and repair to body and some hairline cracks), and a carved wooden tubular cage with raised painted decoration of bowls of fruit on the exterior and a carved floral hard stone cover.

Largest 4.75 in., Largest with ivory 1.6 oz.

Inherited from the consignor's great uncle, Mr. Frederick Coolidge Crawford, former President and Co-Founder of Thompson Ramo Woolridge, Inc. TRW. The cricket cages were purchased in China in the 1970s.

Crickets have a long role in Chinese culture beginning over 1,000 year ago. They were valued for their melodic chirping as well for their fighting skills. Prized crickets were kept in specially grown gourds that were finished with reticulated covers made out of fine materials such as jade, bone, ivory, and finely carved wood.

This lot contains animal or plant material that may be restricted under federal, state, and/or local law. Please refer to our Terms and Conditions of Sale.

$1,000 - 2,000