A WHITE JADE CURVED PENDANT, HUANG

Details

A WHITE JADE CURVED PENDANT, HUANG
LATE SHANG DYNASTY, CA. 1300-1100, B.C.

The thin, semi-translucent, white jade plaque tapering from the head of what is possibly a dragon at one end to the tip of the tail at the other, both sides carved with single and double grooves to delineate the head and the scrolls which fill the body, with biconical holes drilled through the mouth and below the notched area of the upper rim, the stone softly polished and with some traces of cinnabar--3 1/16in. (7.7cm.) long

Lot Essay

This huang-shaped pendant represents the popularized subject of the dragon in Shang and Western Zhou jade imagery. For a general comparison from the Fu Hao tomb at Anyang see Yinxu Fu Hao mu, Beijing, pl. CXXIII:4 (995) and fig. 69:6-8, p. 117; 70:3-4, p. 126. The closest comparison can be made with the jade dragon huang in the King of Sweden's collection, S. Howard Hansford, Chinese Carved Jades, London, 1968, pl. 5B. The continuation of this jade dragon form into the Western Zhou era (Middle Western Zhou) is represented by excavated finds from Puducun, near Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, Kaogu xuebao, 1957:1, pl. VI:1, p. 84