FOUR EARLY CARVED BONE FRAGMENTS

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF EDGAR AND HEDWIG WORCH

Details

FOUR EARLY CARVED BONE FRAGMENTS
SHANG DYNASTY

Including an inscribed oracle bone (antler); a flat dragon plaque carved on both sides with a notched spine, a large eye and leiwen bands decorating the body; a slender oblong; and a slightly curved, wide section carved at one end with narrow bands below a wide band of dragons; together with a small ivory carving of a Buddhistic lion shown crouching atop a rectangular base with a brocade ball between its paws, possibly Ming Dynasty--2 1/8 to 4in. (5.4 to 10.2cm.) long (5)

Further details

See illustration of three

Lot Essay

Compare the oracle bone fragment included in the Exhibition of Eastern Art, Tokyo National Museum, Japan, 1968, p. 63, no. 250

The carving of the flat dragon plaque is similar to that on a bone hairpin in the Ernest Erickson Collection, illustrated by Maxwell K. Hearn, Ancient Chinese Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987, no. 113

For other Shang dynasty bone fragments carved with dragons see A Great Treasury of World Art, Japan, 1962, pls. 27 and 28