A RARE GREYISH-WHITE JADE BIRD-FORM NECKLACE CLOSING DEVICE

LATE SHANG DYNASTY, CIRCA 1200 BC

Details

A RARE GREYISH-WHITE JADE BIRD-FORM NECKLACE CLOSING DEVICE
LATE SHANG DYNASTY, CIRCA 1200 BC
The fairly thick plaque in the shape of a bird (owl) as if seen from above, the large head tapering to a small hooked beak flanked by the circular eyes, the outspread wings carved with hooked scrolls and the bifurcated tail with parallel grooves, with a conical hole drilled through the body, the underside plain, the somewhat opaque stone with some fine brown mottling
1¾ in. (4.5 cm.) across

Provenance

Alfred F. Pillsbury Collection, Minneapolis.
C.T. Loo & Co., New York.
Frank Caro, New York, 1958.

Literature

A. Salmony, Carved Jade of Ancient China, Berkeley, 1938, pl. XXV (3).

Exhibited

An Exhibition of Chinese Archaic Jades, C.T. Loo & Co. at Norton Gallery of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida, 20 January - 1 March 1950, pl. XXIII (6).

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Lot Essay

A less detailed jade necklace closing device carved as a bird in flight excavated from the late Shang Tomb No. 3 at Qianzhangda, Tengzhou, Shandong province, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Unearthed Jades in China - 4 - Shandong, Beijing, 2005, no. 113. See, also, the more similar example in the Sonnenschein Collection illustrated by A. Salmony, Archaic Chinese Jades, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1952, pl. XLIX (4).

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