AN UNUSUAL GRAYISH JADE FIGURAL PENDANT

Details

AN UNUSUAL GRAYISH JADE FIGURAL PENDANT
WESTERN HAN DYNASTY, CA. LATE 3RD-1ST CENTURY B.C.

The highly polished, thin, flat plaque of semi-translucent stone suffused with fine black flecks and now with allover opaque white mottling from alteration during burial cut out and simply incised in the shape of a dancing figure wearing flaring robes with full sleeves which form the curved bodies of two birds flanking a slit-disc motif surmounting the figure's raised hands, the lower edge pierced with circular cut-outs above partial slits flanking one of the two holes drilled through the plaque for attachment--1 5/8in. (4.1cm.) high

Lot Essay

This is typically Western Han in style and subject. The subject of a dancing female combined with floral scrolls that are delicately rhythmical and perforated continues a theme of earlier Eastern Zhou that is associated with a pectoral ornament. The lady doing a sleeve dance is defined in the center of this pendant by an abstract outline. Compare the excavated Western Han ornament from Yangzhou District in Jiangsu, Zhonggu meishu quanji: Yuqi, vol. 9, Beijing, 1992, p. 186, pl. 185, depicting a female sleeve dancer. Like the present lot it is similar in being flat, perforated, pale in coloration and with some linear but minimal internal decor. It is, however, less complex in composition than the present lot. Interestingly, the motif of two profile birds facing outwards and flanking a geometric and floral, central perforated motif is represented in the Late Warring States jade ornament excavated from Yang Gongxiang, Chanfeng County, Anhui, Ibid., p. 46, pl. 127