This delicate pendant represents the often encountered motif of a dragon coiled in a circle so that the head with open mouth is rendered as if biting its own tail. Typical Eastern Zhou/Warring States decoration is the pattern of overlapping scales on both sides of this fish-like, serpentine body. Compare the excavated jade ornament of Warring States date from the Zeng Houyi tomb at Leigudun, Suixian in Hubei Province, Zhongguo meishu quanji: Yuqi, vol. 9, Beijing, pl. 116, p. 43. Other motifs characteristic of the period are feathers, scrolls, granulation or other texturally rich surface effects. The attention to refinement of detail, another Eastern Zhou/Warring States characteristic, is seen in the delicate silhouette of two clawed dragon feet on the inner part of the circular coil of the present lot

Compare two similar pendants; one illustrated in Archaic Chinese Jades, University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1940, pl. 1, no. 7 and another from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Richard C. Bull illustrated by Alfred Salmony, Chinese Jade through the Wei Dynasty, New York, 1963, pl. XXI: 1