Lot 1001
1001
A PALE GREENISH-YELLOW JADE HOOF-SHAPED ORNAMENT
A PALE GREENISH-YELLOW JADE HOOF-SHAPED ORNAMENT
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Early Chinese Jades and Works of Art from the Collection of Dr. Ralph C. Marcove A cum laude graduate of Boston University Medical School, Ralph Marcove (1929-2001) was a pioneer in the field of orthopedic oncology. Over his distinguished 40-year career, he published over 300 articles and authored or co-authored several books relating to bone tumors, receiving numerous awards for his research and clinical treatments. It was in the 1950s while he served as a physician in the U. S. Air Force in Japan that Dr. Marcove developed a keen interest in East Asian art. Dr. Marcove’s collecting journey brought him into the orbit of such leading Asian art dealers as Warren E. Cox (d. 1977), whom he considered an early mentor, and Roger Buckland Bluett (1925-2000) and Brian Morgan (b. 1930), both of Bluett and Sons, London. By the late 1970s, Dr. Marcove had assembled a sufficiently large and varied collection of Chinese art that in 1981 Yutaka Mino mounted an exhibition drawn from Dr. Marcove’s collection at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Over the following years, Dr. Marcove donated works to many distinguished museums, including Harvard Art Museums, Indianapolis Museum of Art, and the Palmer Museum of Art (Penn State University).Property from the Collection of Dr. Ralph C. Marcove, New York
A PALE GREENISH-YELLOW JADE HOOF-SHAPED ORNAMENT

NEOLITHIC PERIOD, HONGSHAN TYPE, 3RD-2ND MILLENNIUM BC

Details
A PALE GREENISH-YELLOW JADE HOOF-SHAPED ORNAMENT
NEOLITHIC PERIOD, HONGSHAN TYPE, 3RD-2ND MILLENNIUM BC
4 7⁄8 in. (12.4 cm.) high
Provenance
Dr. Ralph C. Marcove (1929-2001) Collection, New York, before 1999.

Brought to you by

Rufus Chen (陳嘉安)
Rufus Chen (陳嘉安) Head of Sale, AVP, Specialist

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Lot Essay

This distinct shape this jade ornament has been labeled 'horse hoof' or mati by Chinese archaeologists working on Hongshan cultural sites in Liaoning and northern Hebei provinces. The working of the jade tends to be thinner at the upper walls of these ornaments, which are now thought to be some kind of hair ornament. One of these ornaments from a tomb in Liaoning, which like the present example has a hole drilled on either side above the lower edge, is illustrated by Xiaoneng Yang, ed., in The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1999, pp. 83-4, no. 11.

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