Monkey Holding a Peach 

carved mottled green and white stone

height 3 6/8 in.

China, acquired in Tibet by Jack Daulton

age unknown, probably late 19th-early 20th century

This small sculpture is an image of, or reference to, Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, a central character in the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West, who, in heaven, is guardian of the peaches, a source of immortality.  And the sculpture is probably a figurine from a home altar -- part of the material culture of Chinese folk religion and associated with aspirations for a long life.