PROBABLY JINCUN, HENAN PROVINCE, WARRING STATES PERIOD (475-221 B.C.)

Details

A VERY RARE AND FINE WHITE AND RUSET JADE 'DRAGON' PENDANT, XI
PROBABLY JINCUN, HENAN PROVINCE, WARRING STATES PERIOD (475-221 B.C.)
The pendant is carved and pierced in the shape of a horned dragon with arched body, stretched back legs and long tapering tail. The surface is finely polished and drilled from one side at the back of the eye for suspension. The stone is of a semi-translucent white tone with small areas of black and russet inclussions.
4 3/8 in. (11.1cm.) long

Provenance

The Collection of Baron and Baroness von Oertzen, Johannesburg, South Africa, acquired prior to 1969.
Christie's London, 4 November 2008, lot 127.
Property from a Princely Collection.

Literature

S. Howard Hansford, Jade: Essence of Hills and Streams, Johannesburg, 1969, p.83, no. B39.

Special notice

These lots have been imported from outside the EU or, if the UK has withdrawn from the EU without an agreed transition deal, from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

The shape and polish of this ornament is closely related to an excavated example, now in the Palace Museum, Beijing, excavated from the 4th-3rd century B.C. tombs at Jincun, near present day Luoyang, which are thought to have been the buriel tombs of the Zhou Royal family. The present xi may also be stylistically compared with the dragon and phoenix-shaped ornament from the Warring States period, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, Adorning the Kings, a Private Collection of Archaic Jade Ornaments, 31 May 2017, lot 2726.

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