TWO OPAQUE BLACKISH-GREEN JADE BI

NEOLITHIC PERIOD, LIANGZHU CULTURE, 3RD MILLENNIUM BC

Details

TWO OPAQUE BLACKISH-GREEN JADE BI
NEOLITHIC PERIOD, LIANGZHU CULTURE, 3RD MILLENNIUM BC
The central hole of the larger disc drilled from one side and the walls neatly finished, the blackish-green stone with pale buff markings; the central hole of the smaller, but thicker, disc drilled from both sides and the walls with remains of drill markings, the mottled blackish-green stone with variegated buff alteration, remains of cutting mark on one side
8 3/8 and 7½ in. (21.3 and 19 cm.) diam. (2)

Provenance

A.W. Bahr Collection, Weybridge, 1963.

Exhibited

Second bi: The Arts of China, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1973-1978.

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Lot Essay

The opacity and distinctive markings in the stone of these two bi are similar to one in The Art Institute of Chicago, also ascribed to the Liangzhu culture, illustrated by E. Pearlstein in "Salmony's Catalogue of the Sonnenschein Jades in the Light of Recent Finds", Orientations, Selected Articles from 1983-1996, p. 130, fig. 1. See, also, the similar bi excavated from Tomb No. 3 at Yaojiashan, Tongxiang, Zhejiang province, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China - 8 - Zhejiang, Beijing, 2005, p. 58.

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