THREE EARLY JADE CARVINGS

HAN DYNASTY (206 BC-AD 220)

Details

THREE EARLY JADE CARVINGS
HAN DYNASTY (206 BC-AD 220)
Comprising a figure of a pig, with a small hole pierced through the wedge-shaped tab below the large, flat snout and another at the base of the wedge-shaped tail, the greyish-green stone altered to a buff color with some sparse darker markings; a greenish-white jade figure of a cicada; and a small belthook, the stone altered overall to an opaque warm buff color, all three crisply carved with slashed grooves and notches to delineate the features
4 5/8, 2 7/16 and 2¼ in. (11.7, 6.1 and 5.6 cm.) long, three boxes (3)

Provenance

Pig figure and belthook: J.T. Tai, New York, 1970s.
Cicada: acquired in Hong Kong in the mid-1980s.

Lot Essay

A similar white jade cicada dated to the Han dynasty, excavated from Sanfengoucun, Yangyuan, Hebei province, is illustrated by Gu Fang, The Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China, vol. 1, Beijing, no. 223. See, also, nos. 218, another comparable white jade cicada, and 219, a white jade pig of similar form, which were both excavated in Dingxian, Hebei province, from the Eastern Han tomb of Liu Yan, Prince of Zhongshan. For a Han dynasty jade belt hook similar to the present example, excavated from Songshan, Zhaoqing, Guangdong province, see ibid., vol. 11, no. 133.

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