Lot 82
82
A CARVED BONE SPATULA FRAGMENT

Details
A CARVED BONE SPATULA FRAGMENT
LATE SHANG DYNASTY, ANYANG PERIOD, CA. 1300-1100 B.C.

The top carved with a long, scaly dragon in a crouching position with notched backbone and short, bent legs continuing onto the narrow side beneath, with a cicada-like creature filling in the space above the dragon's tail and the head of another dragon behind, all reserved on a leiwen ground, the underside carved with a row of simpler and stylistically different dragons, with a greenish-yellow patina--5¼in. (13.4cm.) long
Exhibited
New York, Columbia University, February, 1965

Lot Essay

The type of imagery on this piece can be easily documented from the royal tomb No. 1001 at Xibeigang, Anyang, Shi Zhangru, Houjiazhuang, Vol. II, HPKM 1001, Nangang, Taiwan, 1962, pls. CCX, CCXII and CCXVIII. An identical composition to the Sackler fragment is illustrated in pl. CCXII:7. The quality of this fragment and its carving indicates that it derives from a royal burial at Anyang

Another bone fragment carved with similar dragons in profile and a wingless cicada on a leiwen ground is illustrated by Maxwell Hearn, Ancient Chinese Art, The Ernest Erickson Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1987, no. 117