A SMALL GREEN JADE DRAGON PENDANT

Details
A SMALL GREEN JADE DRAGON PENDANT
LATE SHANG DYNASTY, ANYANG PERIOD, CA. 1300-1100 B.C.

The lucent stone of celadon-green color with soft lustrous polish, carved on either side as a dragon with coiled snout, large hooked eyes, a backswept horn and scrolls that fill the curved body terminating in a pointed tail, with incised details, with minor patches of opaque buff alteration, pierced through the curved jaw with a biconical hole--1 11/16in. (4.2cm.) across
Provenance
A.W. Bahr Collection, Weybridge

Lot Essay

The shape of this pendant and the double-line scrolls that follow the curve of the body indicate that this piece is Late Shang in date. A general comparison may be made with an Early Western Zhou piece in Shang style from Zhangjiapo, Changan, Shaanxi, illustrated in Fengxi fajue baogao (1953-1957) (Excavations at Fengxi [1953-1957]), Beijing, 1963, p. 127, pl. LXXXV:3. The latter takes the same shape as the Sackler small pendant and therefore documents this small pendant as typical of Late Shang and Early Western Zhou