A RARE YELLOWISH OLIVE-GREEN JADE DRAGON PENDANT

SHANG DYNASTY, ANYANG, CIRCA 1200 BC

Details

A RARE YELLOWISH OLIVE-GREEN JADE DRAGON PENDANT
SHANG DYNASTY, ANYANG, CIRCA 1200 BC
The flat plaque in the shape of a coiled dragon with a slit leading from the outer edge to the perforated center, the large head with hooked tip to the upturned snout, an opening between the jaws edged in serrations representing teeth, and a tapering eye below a horn with hooked tip, the spine outlined with notched flanges and the tail curled almost all the way around at its tip, with scrolls carved on the body and tail, the semi-translucent stone with some opaque buff alteration
1 9/16 in. (4 cm.) across

Provenance

Chang Nai-chi Collection.
Frank Caro, New York, 1959.

Exhibited

Archaic Chinese Jades, The University Museum, Philadelphia, February 1940, pl. XIV, no. 256.

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Lot Essay

Similar coiled dragon pendants excavated from the tomb of Fu Hao at Anyang, Henan province, are illustrated in Yinxu Yuqi (The Jades from Yinxu), 1982, pl. 2, nos. 600 and 469. Another, previously in the McKim Collection, is illustrated by J. Rawson, Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, British Museum, 1995, p. 211, no. 12:4. See, also, the very similar pendant illustrated by Wu Hung and Brian Morgan, Chinese Jades from the Mu-Fei Collection, Bluett & Sons, London, 1990, no. 15.

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