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Lot Essay
The stones are of exceptional fine quality, all are covered with greyish-white alteration mottled with bluish and russet speckles. Some areas are semi-translucent.
All ten irregularly-shaped pendants are carved by string-cutting tools to simulate fish, birds, or other animals as objects of worship, with cutting marks on the surfaces. Each pendant is pierced to the centre or at the end with a tiny aperture for suspension, and was probably worn exclusively by the nobles at the time.
A small quantity of similar jade carvings had been discovered at the Xuejiagang Site, Qianshan County, Anhui Province, see The Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China – 6 - Anhui, Beijing, 2005, p. 44 (fig. 1) and p. 45 (fig. 2); and at Gushan Tomb, Wuxue County, Jiangxi Province, see Wuxue Gushan, Beijing, 2001, p.1. Both sites are located at the middle Yangtze River valley, close to the famous Lingjiatan site where a multitude of jades had been unearthed. However, the archaeological culture sequence of these sites awaits further research.
It is very rare to find a group of these pendants. They are material evidence that help to advance the research on the various jade cultures of the middle Yangtze River valley.
(Text by Wang Mingda)
All ten irregularly-shaped pendants are carved by string-cutting tools to simulate fish, birds, or other animals as objects of worship, with cutting marks on the surfaces. Each pendant is pierced to the centre or at the end with a tiny aperture for suspension, and was probably worn exclusively by the nobles at the time.
A small quantity of similar jade carvings had been discovered at the Xuejiagang Site, Qianshan County, Anhui Province, see The Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China – 6 - Anhui, Beijing, 2005, p. 44 (fig. 1) and p. 45 (fig. 2); and at Gushan Tomb, Wuxue County, Jiangxi Province, see Wuxue Gushan, Beijing, 2001, p.1. Both sites are located at the middle Yangtze River valley, close to the famous Lingjiatan site where a multitude of jades had been unearthed. However, the archaeological culture sequence of these sites awaits further research.
It is very rare to find a group of these pendants. They are material evidence that help to advance the research on the various jade cultures of the middle Yangtze River valley.
(Text by Wang Mingda)