A Rare Carved Bone Fragment

SHANG DYNASTY, 13TH-12TH CENTURY BC

Details

A Rare Carved Bone Fragment
Shang dynasty, 13th-12th century BC
Of somewhat square form, carved on one side with a large taotie mask reserved on a ground of leiwen below a double-line border, the surface with a smooth patina of greenish color; together with another bone fragment of elongated form carved on one side in Shang style with two taotie masks stacked above a band of overlapping pendent blades, of mottled green and brown color
2 5/8 and 6in. (6.7 and 15.2cm.) long, one box
Falk Collection nos. 516 and 517. (2)

Provenance

Square fragment: Mathias Komor, New York, January 1945.
Second fragment: Mathias Komor, September 1955.

Exhibited

Square fragment: Art Styles of Ancient Shang, New York, China House Gallery, China Institute in America, 1967, no. 73.

Further details

See illustration of one

Lot Essay

As the taotie mask was one of the most important motifs used to decorate bronze vessels during the Shang dynasty, it is not surprising that it was also one of the motifs used most often on bone carvings of the period. A group of Shang dynasty bone fragments carved with full or partial taotie masks is illustrated in Homage to Heaven, Homage to Earth, Chinese Treasures of the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 1992, p. 215, pl. 121. Bone fragments of this type have been excavated from tombs in the 'royal cemetery' at Anyang, but as the pieces are fragmentary, there is uncertainty as to their use.

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