Lot 80
80
AN UNUSUAL BONE DRAGON/FISH PENDANT

Details
AN UNUSUAL BONE DRAGON/FISH PENDANT
LATE SHANG DYNASTY, ANYANG PERIOD, CA. 1300-1100 B.C.

Carved on both sides of the thick, rounded body, the head with large eyes, the fore-body with scrolls set between a bent leg below and a band of chevrons forming a dorsal fin along the top edge, all separated from the long, scroll-filled tail by a plain, waisted section, with a large circular hole drilled from both sides piercing the fore-body, and further holes drilled below the head and through the mouth joined by a diagonal channel, of dark buff color, chips--4 5/8in. (11.7cm.) long
Exhibited
New York, Columbia University, February 1965

Lot Essay

This carved bone pendant perforated with a hole is unusual primarily because of its medium. Few awl-shaped "knot-opener" pieces like this are known in bone, although examples are represented in jade. Generalized comparisons may be drawn with jade fish excavated from the Fu Hao burial at Anyang, Yinxu Fu Hao mu, Beijing, n.d., pl. 121:4 (upper) and 3 (leftmost)

Compare, also, a very similar fish in bone illustrated in Sammlung Baron Eduard von der Heydt, Wien, 1936, no. 121