MING-QING DYNASTY, 16TH-18TH CENTURY

This small jade animal mask may have been inspired by those of Eastern Zhou or early Han dynasty date, such as the comparably small lion mask-form fitting of yellow jade with extensive brown mottling in the British Museum illustrated by J. Rawson in Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, British Museum, 1995, p. 277, no. 18:1. Unlike the present pendant, which is vertically pierced, that fitting has a central groove on the flat reverse and small perforations through the sides and the top for attachment.