LATE SHANG-EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 12TH-11TH CENTURY BC

Details

A PALE GREENISH-YELLOW JADE RABBIT-FORM PENDANT
LATE SHANG-EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 12TH-11TH CENTURY BC
The thick pendant is carved as a crouched rabbit with a small suspension hole between the fore legs. The features are finely delineated by thin grooved lines on both sides. The semi-translucent greenish-yellow jade has small areas of buff alteration.
1 ¾ in. (4.5 cm.) long

Provenance

A. W. Bahr and E. H. Bahr Collection, 1963.
Arthur M. Sackler Collections.
Else Sackler.
Elizabeth A. Sackler.

Lot Essay

This boldly carved jade rabbit is notable for its thickness which allows it to function as a free-standing sculpture. Compare the late Shang jade figure of a rabbit, of smaller size (3.2 cm.) and with more rudimentary carving, but with similar angular ears with thin grooved lines corresponding to the shape, from Qianzhangda, Tengzhou, Shandong province, illustrated by Gu Fang in The Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China, vol. 8, Beijing, 2005, vol. 4, p. 147.

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