A RARE GREEN JADE ANIMAL MASK BEAD

NEOLITHIC PERIOD, SHIJIAHE CULTURE, CIRCA 2500-2000 BC

Details

A RARE GREEN JADE ANIMAL MASK BEAD
NEOLITHIC PERIOD, SHIJIAHE CULTURE, CIRCA 2500-2000 BC
Thick-walled and carved in soft rounded relief with a tiger mask with long tapering ears, the central channel carved from both sides; together with a small olive-buff jade taotie mask pendant, late Shang/early Western Zhou dynasty, of thick, tapering wedge-shaped section, carved with a mask on one side, the plain reverse with a central channel narrowing to the top of a bullnose hole, the stone partially altered
Both 1 1/16 in. (2.8 cm.) high (2)

Provenance

Bead: J.T. Tai & Co., New York, acquired prior to 1977.
Pendant: acquired prior to 1977.

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Lot Essay

The bead is similar to one in the Sonnenschein Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago, now re-dated to early 2nd millenimum BC, and illustrated by Elinor Pearlstein, "Salmony's Catalogue of the Sonnenschein Jades in Light of Recent Finds", Orientations, June 1993, p. 51, fig. 12, where a line drawing of a similar jade from the Shijiahe culture (c. 2500-2000 BC) from Liuhu, Hubei province, is also illustrated, p. 51, fig. 11.

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