AN UNUSUAL WHITE JADE FISH PENDANT, HUANG

Details

AN UNUSUAL WHITE JADE FISH PENDANT, HUANG
LATE SHANG DYNASTY, ANYANG PERIOD, CA. 1300-1100 B.C.

The thick, arched body carved in the round and sharply beveled on top to form the long, striated dorsal fin, and then more softly beveled as it approaches the bifurcated tail and along the sides of the belly between the pectoral fins which project as right-angle flanges from either side, the tapering head carved with large simple eyes and pierced with a biconical hole through the mouth below an upturned tip, with some opaque cloudiness in the softly polished, semi-translucent white stone--3 5/8in. (9.2cm.) long

Provenance

Mrs. Christian R. Holmes Collection

Lot Essay

The arched body marked by a long, striated dorsal fin, softly beveled as it approaches the bifurcated tail, is typical of Late Shang, Anyang period fish pendants. The full and fine modeling is unusual. The other type of fish huang popular in the Shang is often characterized by body decor in the form of geometric scales and a pectoral fin that is serrated. The present lot can be compared with excavated Anyang period jade fish from the Fu Hao and other tombs of Anyang, see Yinxu Fu Hao mu, Beijing, n.d., fig. 89:7, p. 171; fig. 96:3, p. 125, pl. CI:1 (upper); and Yang Jianfeng, Jade Carving in Chinese Archaeology, Hong Kong, 1987, pl. VII:4

A group of fish pendants with the same extended fins but with flat bodies was included in the C.T. Loo exhibition, Chinese Archaic Jades, Norton Gallery of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida, 1952, Catalogue, pl. XIX: 1, 3, 4 and 7-9