A RARE WHITE JADE TAOTIE MASK NECKLACE CLOSING DEVICE

SHANG DYNASTY, CIRCA 1200 BC

Details

A RARE WHITE JADE TAOTIE MASK NECKLACE CLOSING DEVICE
SHANG DYNASTY, CIRCA 1200 BC
The thick plaque cut in the shape of a taotie mask and carved on one side with the features of the mask, pierced with a large hole below a narrow chevron-carved crest flanked by the scrolled horns, with two parallel grooves carved on the bottom edge continuing up onto the side edges perhaps to indicate a mouth, channels pierced from the top and bottom exiting at the edges of an irregular depression in the center of the back around the hole drilled through the center, the stone of even white color and well polished
1 11/16 in. (4.2 cm.) long

Provenance

Chang Nai-chi Collection.

Exhibited

Archaic Chinese Jades, The University Museum, Philadelphia, February 1940, pl. XV, no. 291.

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Lot Essay

This fine white jade necklace closing device is a refined version of one also carved as a taotie mask, excavated from a late Shang dynasty Tomb at Qianzhangda, Tengzhou, Shandong province, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China - 4 - Shandong, Beijing, 2005, p. 77.

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