MID-WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 10TH-9TH CENTURY BC

This superb and rare implement belongs to a group of Western Zhou flat jade carvings of generally rectangular shape and carved with identical decoration on either broad side which are variously described as tablets, scepters or handles. The present example is rare to feature a humanoid figure so prominently in the design. A similarly carved Western Zhou jade tablet carved with a bird resting atop the head of a humanoid figure with similar facial features to that on the current tablet, that in turn surmounts animal masks that face up and down, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, acc. no. 1985.214.96. (Fig. 1) Other flat jade implements of this type carved with similar bird and mask motifs, but lacking humanoid figures, include one in the British Museum described as a scepter (acc. no. 1937,0416.151) and one from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard Art Musuems (1943.50.134).