Beautiful Jade Horse Carving - The Horse Exhibit at British Museum

I just happned to stop by the website for the British Museum tonight and right on the front page was an incredibly beautiful jade horse carving.  It's not a chess piece - but it could be, albeit a little large:

The particulars:

Height: 12.750 cm [1 cm = .39 in. approximately; so this piece is a little over 5 inches tall]
Length: 20.500 cm [approximately a little over 8 inches long]

On loan from a private collection OA 26:20
Room 33b: Chinese jade

Jade figure of a horse

Late Ming or Qing dynasty, 17th century AD

This impressive horse belongs to a small group of carved jade animals, mainly horses and buffaloes, carved on a much larger scale than usual, and all in the same range of green opaque stones. There is no direct evidence to help us define precisely when and for what purpose these large creatures were carved.

The slender and elegantly smooth carving shows the horse lying down, its hind legs tucked under its body. The mane and tail are carefully worked to represent the hair, with the other features - eyes, jaw, limbs, muscles and sinews - shown in fine grooves.

J. Rawson, Chinese jade: from the Neolith (London, The British Museum Press, 1995, reprinted 2002).

Oh, I wish I could see this -- a wonderful exhibit on the horse at the British Museum, time is almost up, it ends on September 30, 2012:

The horse from Arabia to Royal Ascot

24 May – 30 September 2012
Free

Room 35/Open late Fridays

Royal Patron:
HM Queen Elizabeth II

A Diamond Jubilee Celebration