Lot 343
343
A LARGE PALE GREY JADE DISC, BI
PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF MR. AND MRS. MALCOLM E. MCPHERSON
A LARGE PALE GREY JADE DISC, BI

HAN DYNASTY, 2ND-1ST CENTURY BC

Details
A LARGE PALE GREY JADE DISC, BI
HAN DYNASTY, 2ND-1ST CENTURY BC
Both sides with a plain inner and outer border, with a wide band of comma spirals set within an inner striated border and an outer band carved with outward-facing bovine masks with long, scrolling horns, the pale greenish-grey stone with some opaque beige alteration
8 5/16 in. (21 cm.) diam., box
Provenance
Private collection, Washington, DC, early 1970s.

Lot Essay

A group of silmilarly carved bi, dated c. 122 BC, were found on the lower part of the jade suit of the King of Nanyue at Xinggang, Guangzhou, Guangdong province. See J. Rawson, Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, p. 73, fig. 67, and Gu Fang, The Complete Collection of Unearthed Jades in China, vol. 11, Beijing, 2005, no. 51. Compare two other similar bi illustrated by the Institute of Archaeology, Excavations of the Han Tombs at Mancheng, vol. II, Beijing, 1980, pl. CCX, figs. 1 and 2.

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