A RARE PALE YELLOWISH-WHITE JADE FIGURAL FINIAL/INSIGNIA

MIDDLE WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 10TH CENTURY BC

Details

A RARE PALE YELLOWISH-WHITE JADE FIGURAL FINIAL/INSIGNIA
MIDDLE WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 10TH CENTURY BC
The flat plaque carved and cut out in the shape of a human squatting atop the coiled snout of a dragon against which the figure also leans, the head of the human surmounted by a small loop and with scooped profile and long hair trailing back to the edge of the arched body of the dragon which has a backwards-turned head with large eyes, and an extended forefoot pierced with two holes, the translucent stone of yellowish-white color with some areas of opaque pale brownish alteration and traces of cinnabar
2 5/8 in. (6.7 cm.) high

Provenance

C.T. Loo & Co., New York.
Frank Caro, New York, 1958.

Literature

A. Salmony, Carved Jades of Ancient China, Berkeley, 1938, pl. XXIX (2).

Exhibited

3000 Years of Chinese Jade, Arden Gallery, New York, 1939, no. 129 (not illustrated).
Exhibition of Chinese Arts, C.T. Loo & Co., New York, 1 November 1941 - 30 April 1942, no. 276.
An Exhibition of Chinese Archaic Jades, C.T. Loo & Co. at Norton Gallery of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida, 20 January - 1 March 1950, pl. XXXI (5).

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Lot Essay

A pendant of similar type is illustrated by James C.Y. Watt in Chinese Jades from the Collection of the Seattle Art Museum, 1989, p. 42, no. 19. The same kind of combining of human and dragon figures executed in the same technique can also be seen in a pendant excavated from Tomb no. 63, Marquis of Jin necropolis, Shanxi province, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China - 3 - Shanxi, Beijing, 2005, p. 116.

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