FOUR JADE SWORD FITTINGS

LATE EASTERN ZHOU/WESTERN HAN DYNASTY, 3RD-2ND CENTURY BC

Details

FOUR JADE SWORD FITTINGS
LATE EASTERN ZHOU/WESTERN HAN DYNASTY, 3RD-2ND CENTURY BC
Comprising a pommel, the domed center carved with C-scrolls, surrounded by commas carved in low relief in the canted outer field, with a small circular channel on the underside; a chape of lenticular section, carved on the sides and top with scrolls; a rectangular scabbard slide, the top carved with tiny bosses in an hexagonal grid pattern separated into two sections by a continuous border formed by the elongated body and tail of a bird; and a small scabbard slide, made from a fragment of an earlier piece, the slightly curved top carved in relief with a chilong, with the remains of angular scroll pattern on the rectangular loop on the reverse
1 15/16 in. (5 cm.) diam., 1 7/8, 3 and 2 in. (4.8, 7.2 and 5.1 cm.) long (4)

Provenance

Pommel: acquired prior to 1966.
Chape: J.T. Tai & Co., New York, 1964.
Larger slide: Chang Nai-chi Collection.
J.T. Tai & Co., New York, 1964.
Smaller slide: J.T. Tai & Co., New York, 1963.

Exhibited

Larger slide: Archaic Chinese Jades, The University Museum, Philadelphia, February 1940, pl. IX, no. 164.

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Lot Essay

At the time the larger scabbard slide was included in the 1940 Philadelphia exhibition it had an attributed provenance of Shou Xian, Anhui province. It is very similar to one illustrated by Yang Boda, Chinese Archaic Jades from the Kwan Collection, Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1994, no. 213, where a drawing is illustrated of a similar slide, excavated in Guangzhou from Tomb 1100, dated to the early Western Han period.

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