HAN DYNASTY (206 BC-AD 220)

In Chinese Jades from the Cissy and Robert Tang Collection, Hong Kong, 2015, p. 131, no. 23f, Jenny F. So illustrates a jade scabbard slide dated to the Western Han period, 2nd century BC, carved in relief with a feline extending beyond the rectangular shape of the slide. As So notes, p. 133, “The slinking felines in varying degrees of relief on the guard and scabbard slides were particularly popular during the Western Han period. They have sinuous bodies, powerfully clawed feet, twisted tails, and are sometimes accompanied by cloud scrolls that suggest an extraterrestrial realm. While these felines commonly appear in low relief contorted to fit within the rectangular shape of the slide, the most animated of them are executed in high relief, like three-dimensional sculptures, or break out of the frame to create an open silhouette…The bold designs require extraordinary skill, extravagant consumption, and waste of previous material that only the elite few can afford. Thus, they are rare, associated mainly with the ruling classes of the time, and few survived intact and undamaged.” For another Han jade slide of this type, with the relief decoration extending beyond the rectangular outline, in the British Museum, see J. Rawson, Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, British Museum, 1995, p. 302, no. 21:15.