A RARE LEAF-GREEN JADE HUMAN-FORM PENDANT

Details

A RARE LEAF-GREEN JADE HUMAN-FORM PENDANT
LATE WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY

The thin, translucent plaque carved on either side with a human figure shown in profile seated with legs tightly drawn up beneath the arms and torso formed by the coiled body of a dragon, with a pendent, scrolled tail below, the head raised on a thin neck and surmounted by another dragon arched backward to form the hair and drilled through its coiled tail, the details indicated by grooves and the edges notched to conform to the outline of the design, the unusual stone of bright green color with satiny polish, minor chips--4 3/4in. (12.1cm.) long

Provenance

A.W. Bahr Collection, Weybridge

Literature

Alfred Salmony, Carved Jade of Ancient China, Berkeley, California, 1938, pl. XXXIX:6

Lot Essay

This exquisitely delicate piece of leaf-green nephrite is a spectacular example of Late Western Zhou semi-human imagery. Its exact cousin is represented by the 7.2cm.-tall plaque version, of identical leaf-green nephrite, from excavations in 1976 at Tanghu in Xinzheng County, Henan Province, Wenwu ziliao congkan: 2, 1978, figs. 7:5 and 65. This leaf-green color of jade is also known by examples of similar date from Puducan Changan County, Shaanxi, Kaogu xuebao, 1957:1, e.g., pl. VI:4, p. 84. Both the excavated and Sackler green plaques are characterized by identical imagery, with the Sackler piece being the slightly more elaborate version. The Sackler piece can be clearly identified as originating at the excavated burials from Tanghu, Xinzheng, Henan

An almost identical pendant of the same color is in the Winthrop Collection, Fogg Art Museum, illustrated by Max Loehr, Ancient Chinese Jades, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1975, no. 243