HAN DYNASTY (206 BC-AD 220)

This rare jade figure of a seated bird (7.3 cm.) is very similar to a figure described as a pommel and dated mid-Western Han to Eastern Han period, 1^st century BC – 2^nd century AD, illustrated in Curio Boxes of Qianlong Emperor, p. 142, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2019. (Fig. 1) A bird-form water pot of comparable size (3 3/8 in.) and with very similar tail and legs in the collection of the King of Sweden, is illustrated by Desmond Gure, “Selected Examples from the Jade Exhibition at Stockholm, 1963; A Comparative Study”, B.M.F.E.A., no. 36, 1964, pl. 14, p. 133, where it is dated Wei (AD 220-265).