CHINA, HAN DYNASTY (206 BC-AD 220)

Details

A PALE GREENISH-WHITE JADE CICADA
CHINA, HAN DYNASTY (206 BC-AD 220)
The cicada well carved with grooves to delineate the head, wings and body, the semi-translucent stone well polished and of even color with a small area of brown alteration; together with a pair of pale greenish-white jade eye covers, a pair of small jade crescent-shaped eyebrows, a pale grey-green jade octagonal plug, two smaller jade octagonal plugs, and two small jade cylindrical plugs
Cicada 2 ½ in. (6.3 cm.) long

Provenance

The Collection of Robert H. Ellsworth, New York, acquired in Hong Kong, 1993.

Special notice

This lot is offered without reserve.

Brought to you by

Gemma Sudlow

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Lot Essay

The carving of the cicada is very similar to two jade examples dated 2nd-1st century BC illustrated by Jessica Rawson in Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, British Museum, 1995, p. 319, no. 24:9. A group of similar facial aperture covers and plugs, and a cicada, are illustrated by Yang Boda in Chinese Archaic Jades from the Kwan Collection, Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1994, no. 224, where they are dated Han dynasty, and where their uses are described.

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