WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY (C. 1100-771 BC)

The unusual motif on this ornament, depicting two human faces with intertwining dragon bodies, can be found on a small number of Western Zhou jade pieces. The closest example is a jade huang with similar human-dragon motifs in the Palace Museum Collection, illustrated in Zhongguo yuqi quanji 2- Shang & Western Zhou, Shijiazhuang, 1993, pl. 292 (fig. 1). A rectangular jade handled-shaped ornament, in the Palace Museum Collection, bears a similar single human-dragon motif, and is illustrated ibid, pl. 280. The Yangdetang Collection also has another very similar but more calcified jade huang, illustrated in Teng Shu-p’ing, Collectors’ Exhibition of Archaic Chinese Jades, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1999, pl. 129. Compare also to a jade huang depicting two intertwining dragons with very similar combed hair, dating to the early Western Zhou period and excavated in Tengxian in Shandong province, illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji -9- yuqi, Beijing, 1986, pl. 83.