SONG DYNASTY (960-1279)

Details

A VERY RARE GREY JADE 'SAGE' BELT PLAQUE
SONG DYNASTY (960-1279)
Of rectangular shape slightly rounded on the left, carved within the raised borders in shallow relief with a seated sage playing ruanxian, beside rockwork, all reserved on a wave-pattern ground, the back with four sets of fastening holes, the softly polished stone of mottled grey tone with areas of striations and inclusions
1¾ x 2 5/8 in. (6.5 x 4.5 cm.)

Provenance

Baron and Baroness von Oertzen Collection

Literature

S. Howard Hansford, Jade - Essence of Hills and Streams, Johannesburg, 1969, no. C27, p. 104

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 15% on the buyer's premium

Lot Essay

The style of carving and the subject matter on this unusual plaque is very closely related to a plaque in the Jiangxi Provincial Museum, excavated from the Souther Song tomb of Zhao Zhongyin in Jiangxi (fig.1). Zhao died in 1130, was a member of the Imperial family and the Governor of Mingzhou. The plaque is an example of jade pieces that high officials in the Song period would have used. Both the excavated and the current example depicts a scholar playing a lute-like instrument with a cirular body, ruanxian. In contrast to the belt plaques from the Tang period, which often depicts foreigners playing foreign musical instruments, the subject matter on these two examples is distictively indiginous. Compare another set of jade plaques from the Song period in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Jadeware (II), Hong Kong, 1995, no. 78, p. 90.

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