Lot 820
820
A RARE LARGE MOTTLED BROWN AND GREENISH-BEIGE JADE BIRD-FORM PENDANT
A RARE LARGE MOTTLED BROWN AND GREENISH-BEIGE JADE BIRD-FORM PENDANT
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A RARE LARGE MOTTLED BROWN AND GREENISH-BEIGE JADE BIRD-FORM PENDANT

LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 13TH-11TH CENTURY BC

Details
A RARE LARGE MOTTLED BROWN AND GREENISH-BEIGE JADE BIRD-FORM PENDANT
LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 13TH-11TH CENTURY BC
The pendant is possibly repurposed from a cong and is carved as a bird in flight with outspread wings and tail decorated in intaglio lines. The beak has a bull-nose perforation for suspension. The greenish-beige jade has some brown inclusions and traces of cinnabar.
2 ½ in. (5.9 cm.) long
Provenance
Arthur M. Sackler Collections.
Else Sackler.
Elizabeth A. Sackler.

Lot Essay

The thickness and unusual, angular form of this bird pendant suggests it may have been repurposed in antiquity from a larger jade carving, possibly a cong. Compare two jade bird-form pendants which are more naturalistically carved, but with similar flattened, broad bodies and angular scrolls decorating the wings, from the late Shang dynasty tomb of Fu Hao at Anyang, Henan province, illustrated in Yinxu Yuqi (The Jades from Yinxu), Beijing, 1982, pl. 63, nos. 380 and 381, which are identified as a young swallow and cormorant, respectively.

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