Lot 94
94
A SMALL PALE YELLOWISH-BUFF JADE TIGER PENDANT

Details
A SMALL PALE YELLOWISH-BUFF JADE TIGER PENDANT
LATE SHANG/EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY

The semi-translucent stone with soft lustrous polish of yellowish-buff color suffused with fine areas of opaque buff cloudiness, thickly cut and carved in the outline of a crouching or recumbent tiger with head stretched forward and tail extended behind, the open jaws exposing teeth below a lozenge-shaped eye and scrolled ear, the areas of the body delineated by grooved lines and the edges of the body softly beveled, diagonally pierced through the snout, with a large channel cut through the tail and rear legs exiting at the front of the rear paws, traces of cinnabar--2 7/8in. (7.3cm.) long
Provenance
A.W. Bahr Collection, Weybridge

Lot Essay

This jade tiger is typical of Shang representations in that it is flat, in profile and represented crouching. Although Shang jade craftsmen worked in both round and flat style jade forms, this version suggests a late Shang or early Western Zhou date due to the lack of the typical Anyang period double-line decor used to represent internal body features. Comparisons from Late Shang burials may be made with the small profile tigers excavated from the Fu Hao burials at Anyang, Yinxu Yuqi (The Jades from Yinxu), Beijing, 1982, pls. 87 (991), 89 (358, 359, 1310). Western Zhou representatives of this profile, flat tiger form come from Puducun, Changan County, Shaanxi illustrated in Kaogu xuebao, 1957:1, p. 84, pl. VI:1, 7