LATE SHANG DYNASTY, CIRCA 14TH-MID-11TH CENTURY BC

The zoomorphic design of this piece is characteristic of jade carvings from the Shang dynasty. It is notable that while certain features on the tiger are naturalistically rendered, such as the eyes and ears, other elements are more abstractly represented, such as the use of square scrolls to highlight the stripes on the body. The apertures in the tiger’s mouth and tail suggests it might possibly have been worn as a pendant.

Four jade tigers were excavated from the tomb of Lady Fu Hao, the consort of King Wu Ding of Shang, thus giving rise to the dating of this piece to the late Shang period. One of these four pieces is represented in recumbent form, in a similar position as the current tiger, also with an upturned tail (fig. 1). Though longer in length (14.1 cm.), it is closely related to the current tiger and is now in the collection of Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji -9- yuqi, Beijing, 1986, pl. 72. Another jade tiger similar to the Fu Hao example, dating to the early Western Zhou period (16.5 cm.), was excavated in Pangjiagou in Luoyang, illustrated in Zhongguo yuqi quanji 2- Shang & Western Zhou, Shijiazhuang, 1993, pl. 234. There is another jade tiger dating to the Shang dynasty in the Yangdetang Collection, illustrated in Teng Shu-p’ing, Collectors’ Exhibition of Archaic Chinese Jades, Taipei, 1995, pl. 22.