A PAIR OF YELLOW-GREEN AND BROWN JADE PENDANTS

Details

A PAIR OF YELLOW-GREEN AND BROWN JADE PENDANTS
EASTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, SPRING AND AUTUMN PERIOD

Each flat plaque in the shape of an angular arc formed by the addorsed bodies of two birds, their heads sharply turned backwards to form a loop above their sharply bent leg with projecting talons below, their bodies filled with highly stylized scrolls set between striated borders outlining the upper and lower edges, repeated on the reverse where grooved scrolls alternate with striated scrolls, each drilled for stringing and attachment, the stone of pale yellow-green color with some brown coloring near the edges and some opaque buff alteration from burial --2 7/8in. (7.3cm.) long (2)

Provenance

A.W. Bahr Collection, Weybridge

Lot Essay

The small scale of these pieces, the fact that they are paired and carry small perforations suggests that they were designed as part of a jade veil or face shroud covering the head of a corpse. This comparison is suggested by the similarly decorated animal parts of the jade mask excavated from a tomb at Zhongzhoulu near Luoyang in Henan province, illustrated in S. H. Hansford, Chinese Carved Jades, London, 1968, pls. 26-7; and Luoyang Zhongzhoulu, Beijing, 1959. The latter is composed of some thirteen pairs of small-scale pieces of decorated jades, all perforated for attachment to some material