拍品專文
This piece is extremely rare and still not clearly defineable in subject. The simplified stone version excavated from Nasitai, Inner Mongolia, Kaogu, 1987.6, fig. 13:6, p. 516 has only two discernible pairs of what could be simplified versions of "teeth" or "tusks". A jade example excavated from Niuheliang, Jianping-Lingyuan counties, Liaoning Province, Fang Dianchun and Wei Fan, "Excavating a Lost Culture", China Reconstructs, December, 1986, p. 38 has three pairs of "tusks". Unpublished examples from Liaoning and the dark green example from the Tianjin Museum, Mou Yongkang, et. al., Zhongguo yuqi chuanyi, Xinhua publishers, 1992, pl. 14, p. 12, have seven pairs of "tusks". The Tianjin piece is illustrated upside down and labeled "hooked cloud double bird-shaped ornament"
An exquisite version of a "toothed" pendant similar to the present lot, from the Therese and Erwin Harris Collection and now in the Freer Gallery of Art, has seven pairs of tusks. See Arts Asiatiques, vol. XLVI, December, 1991, E.Childs-Johnson, "Jades of the Hongshan Culture: The Dragon and Fertility Cult Worship", fig. 4, p. 85, and Jenny F. So, "A Hongshan Pendant in the Freer Gallery of Art", Orientations, Mat, 1993, pp. 87-92
Childs-Johnson distinguishes between the "toothed" pendant represented by the present lot and the "hooked cloud shape", which is composed of four comma-shaped cusps at the corners of the plaques framing an abstractly circular motif reminiscent of a bird's head. There are usually two perforated holes at the top of the plaque and two four-eyed slits on the reverse for further attachment. The "toothed" pendant has a central image characterized by two perfectly round holes that suggest eyes. These are framed by four markedly arched cusps separated at the opposing short sides by a strong, horizontal groove. There usually is a single hole at the top for suspension. The present lot has been ground at the top so that it is without a central perforation or the left and right upper extensions to the body of the plaque
The soft nephrite material is typically worked in Hongshan style. Hongshan jades are more sculptural than linear in expression, and this style of working jade differentiates this piece from others of Late Neolithic date belonging to Liangzhu or Longshan cultural periods. Typical of Hongshan taste is the highly polished surface that is soft and lustrous in effect. Worked edges are consistently softly rounded
Besides the Harris example, other seemingly complete and similar pendants are in the Kwan Collection included in the exhibition, Chinese Archaic Jades, Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1994, Catalogue nos. 5 and 6; in the Peony Collection included in the exhibition, Jades from China, The Museum of East Asian Art, Bath, England, 1994, no. 20; and one included in the exhibition, Archaic Chinese Bronzes, Jades and Works of Art, J. J. Lally & Co., June 1-25, 1994, Catalogue no. 7
An exquisite version of a "toothed" pendant similar to the present lot, from the Therese and Erwin Harris Collection and now in the Freer Gallery of Art, has seven pairs of tusks. See Arts Asiatiques, vol. XLVI, December, 1991, E.Childs-Johnson, "Jades of the Hongshan Culture: The Dragon and Fertility Cult Worship", fig. 4, p. 85, and Jenny F. So, "A Hongshan Pendant in the Freer Gallery of Art", Orientations, Mat, 1993, pp. 87-92
Childs-Johnson distinguishes between the "toothed" pendant represented by the present lot and the "hooked cloud shape", which is composed of four comma-shaped cusps at the corners of the plaques framing an abstractly circular motif reminiscent of a bird's head. There are usually two perforated holes at the top of the plaque and two four-eyed slits on the reverse for further attachment. The "toothed" pendant has a central image characterized by two perfectly round holes that suggest eyes. These are framed by four markedly arched cusps separated at the opposing short sides by a strong, horizontal groove. There usually is a single hole at the top for suspension. The present lot has been ground at the top so that it is without a central perforation or the left and right upper extensions to the body of the plaque
The soft nephrite material is typically worked in Hongshan style. Hongshan jades are more sculptural than linear in expression, and this style of working jade differentiates this piece from others of Late Neolithic date belonging to Liangzhu or Longshan cultural periods. Typical of Hongshan taste is the highly polished surface that is soft and lustrous in effect. Worked edges are consistently softly rounded
Besides the Harris example, other seemingly complete and similar pendants are in the Kwan Collection included in the exhibition, Chinese Archaic Jades, Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1994, Catalogue nos. 5 and 6; in the Peony Collection included in the exhibition, Jades from China, The Museum of East Asian Art, Bath, England, 1994, no. 20; and one included in the exhibition, Archaic Chinese Bronzes, Jades and Works of Art, J. J. Lally & Co., June 1-25, 1994, Catalogue no. 7