CHINE, ÉPOQUE NÉOLITHIQUE, IIIÈME MILLENAIRE AV. J.-C.

The present jade bi disc bears direct comparison to the magnificent mottled green and brown jade bi in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, accession number F1956.16. The Freer Gallery website dates their bi (46 cm diam.) to the late Neolithic period (ca. 2250- ca.1900 BCE), Qijia Culture, north-west China. It was acquired from Tonying and Company, New York and gifted to the museum by Charles Lang in 1956. The bi are very close in size, colour, striations and markings. Jenny F. So writes on the website that the Freer Gallery bi disc is: "The largest disk in the collection and amongst the largest known.... Inhomogenous but stratified texture unlike that often seen on Liangzhu disks. Uneven surface, with remains of curved slice mark on one face. Finished size is almost size of original boulder, with 'skin' spanning almost half the circumference.