YUAN DYNASTY (1279-1368)

These rare plaques are similar in their triangular shape and style of carving to a single openwork plaque, also centered by a phoenix, shown amidst scrolling peony, rather than the bamboo of the present plaques, dated to the Yuan dynasty, and illustrated by Bo Zhongmo, Guyu Jingying (The Art of Jade Carving in Ancient China), Taiwan, 1989/1990, p. 253, no. 158. On all three plaques the tail feathers of the phoenix have serrated edges, and the simple rendering of the eye is the same.