THREE EARLY JADE PENDANTS

LATE SHANG/EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 12TH-10TH CENTURY BC

Details

THREE EARLY JADE PENDANTS
LATE SHANG/EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 12TH-10TH CENTURY BC
Comprising a greyish-green bird pendant, the square body carved in grooved detail with hooked beak, circular eyes, long crest and upswept wings above a notched tail, with a tiny hole at the breast, the stone with opaque buff alteration; a greyish-green jade applique carved in groove detail as a taotie mask, the stone with opaque russet alteration; and a yellowish-green cicada pendant with a tiny hole drilled through the pointed probesis
1 3/8, 1 and 1½ in. (3.6, 2.5 and 3.7 cm.) long, three boxes (3)

Provenance

Bird pendant and taotie applique: J.T. Tai, New York, 1970s.
Cicada pendant: Oscar Gerson Collection, San Francisco, 1970s.

Exhibited

San Francisco, Golden Gate Park, Hall of Flowers, Treasures of the Orient, Society for Asian Art, 1979, no. 13.

Lot Essay

The bird pendant is of the type that Jessica Rawson describes as becoming widespread in the Western Zhou period. See, J. Rawson, Chinese Jades from the Neolithic to the Qing, British Museum, 1995, p. 227, fig. 1.

The cicada pendant is similar to one dated to the Western Zhou period of slightly smaller size (3 cm. long) which was excavated at Baicaopo, Lingtai, Gansu province, and is now in the Gansu Provincial Museum. See Gu Fang, The Complete Collection of Unearthed Jades in China, vol. 15, Beijing, 2005, no. 69.

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