LATE EASTERN ZHOU/HAN DYNASTY, 4TH CENTURY BC-1ST CENTURY AD

This finely polished chape of elegant shape and good yellow-green color is a fine example of a type of sword fitting seen in the late Eastern Zhou and Han periods that was attached to the bottom of the scabbard. The angular scroll pattern seen on many of these chapes seems to have evolved from the taotie mask. Compare the similar example dated to the late Zhou dynasty illustrated by S. Jenyns, Chinese Archaic Jades in the British Museum, 1951, pl. XXXIV (bottom right), and another illustrated by Bo Zhongmo, Guyu Jingying (The Art of Jade Carving in Ancient China), Taiwan, 1989-90, p. 34, pl. 65 (left), which also illustrates rubbings of the side and the bottom showing the attachment holes.

A very similarly carved jade scabbard slide in the Ma'anshan Museum was excavated at Simenkou, Ma'anshan. See Gu Fang, The Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China, vol. 6, Beijing, 2005, p. 150.