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PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF ROBERT P. YOUNGMAN
Lot 15
Two pale celadon green and gray jade dragon-shaped pendants Eastern Zhou Dynasty (5th - 4th Century BCE)
Amended
15 March 2021, 10:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$56,562.50 inc. premium
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Two pale celadon green and gray jade dragon-shaped pendants
Eastern Zhou Dynasty (5th - 4th Century BCE)
The two carved in mirror image with powerfully arched S-shaped bodies with scrolling projections, one with tight 'grain'-form coils, the other with a variety of shaped 'commas' and ''grain'-form coils, each pendant is outlined with a small edge-ridge, the heads, feet and some projections with more detailed realistic fur-like markings, the reverse side of each is un-worked save for original tool cutting marks on each both drilled, from one side only, at the center of upper body for suspension.
6 1/4in (16cm) across, approximately
The two carved in mirror image with powerfully arched S-shaped bodies with scrolling projections, one with tight 'grain'-form coils, the other with a variety of shaped 'commas' and ''grain'-form coils, each pendant is outlined with a small edge-ridge, the heads, feet and some projections with more detailed realistic fur-like markings, the reverse side of each is un-worked save for original tool cutting marks on each both drilled, from one side only, at the center of upper body for suspension.
6 1/4in (16cm) across, approximately
Footnotes
東周 龍形玉佩兩件
PROVENANCE
Alvin Lo Oriental Art Limited, New York, 2001
LITERATURE
Alvin Lo Oriental Art Limited, Auspicious Jade Animals, New York, 2001, No. 1
來源
Alvin Lo Oriental Art Limited,, 紐約, 2001年
出版
Alvin Lo Oriental Art Limited, Auspicious Jade Animals, 紐約, 2001年, 圖錄編號1
For a similar pair of Eastern Zhou, Warring States (475-221 BCE) dragon-shaped pendants unearthed at Pingliangtai, Huaiyang county, Henan Province and now housed in the Henan Provincial Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Relics, Zhengzhou, see China: 5,000 Years: Innovation and Transformation in the Arts, Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1998, p. 213, no. 14.
For another rare matched pair of dragon pendants dating to the same period, see Jessica Rawson, Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, British Museum, London, 1995, pp.269-270, No. 17:9 where the author notes that "matched dragon pendants of this quality are rare having been used only in the tombs of the highest rank. There are only a few examples in collections outside China." She also notes that dragon pendants made a sudden appearance in the range of jade items in the fifth century BCE tombs in Henan province and the tombs of the Jin State.
For a number of other similar examples see, Wen C. Fong and James C.Y. Watt, Possessing the Past: Treasures from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, New York, Taipei, 1996, pp.48-49, pl. 10, where the authors note that such pieces formed part of a composite pendant worn by the aristocracy of the eastern Zhou period and illustrate a line drawing reconstructing the assemblage (fig. 3).
See also Max Loehr, Ancient Chinese Jades from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Massachusetts, 1975, pp.290-291, no's 422-424; Zhou Nanquan, Gugong Bowuyuan Tsan Wenwu Jenping Quanji, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Jadeware (1),Hong Kong, 1995, p.180, No. 150; and Teng Shu-p'ing, Chun Yu Bie Tsang Shu Ji, 1999 Collector's Exhibition of Archaic Chinese Jades, National Palace Museum, 1996, pp. 236-237, no's 154 and 174.
A pair of unadorned silhouette dragon pendants dated to the Eastern Zhou period (5th-4th century BCE) that resemble the undersides of our examples, are illustrated by J.J. Lally & Co., Ancient Chinese Jade, March 2018, no. 107 where comparison is drawn with another pair excavated from the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng at Suizhou, Hubei province illustrated by Gu (ed.), Zhongguochutu yuqi quanji (Complete Collection of Jades unearthed in China), Vol. 10, Hubei, Hunan, Beijing, 2005, p.84.
See also John Finlay, The Chinese Collection, Selected Works from the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, 2003, pp.136-137, no. 43, for a single example.
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Saleroom notices
PLEASE NOTE: The dateline should read "The jade Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the carving later".