WESTERN HAN DYNASTY, 2ND CENTURY BC

An almost identical jade chape in the Tianjin Museum is illustrated in Zhongguo Yuqi Heji, vol. 4, Qin, Han, and Northern and Southern Dynasties, Hebei, 1993, pp. 198 and 317, no. 277, where it is dated Eastern Han. A jade chape in the Shanghai Museum of broader shape and with a triangular upper projection, but pierced and carved with a very similar winged dragon with kidney-shaped designs on the body, is illustrated by Zhang Wei in Zhongguo gudai yuqi, Shanghai, 2009, pl. 139, where it dated to the Western Han dynasty. Zhang notes that a similar chape to the Shanghai example is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and illustrated by Zhou Nanquan in Yuqi, vol. 1, Hong Kong, 1996, no. 185.