Page 128 - JJ Lally Ancient Chinese Jades, 1988
P. 128
125. An Archaic Jade Collared Disc ( Yuan )
Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C.–A.D. 9)
the softly polished flat sides with a shallow collar rising around the inner rim on both sides, the
jade altered to a creamy beige color with a random pattern of paler markings, and with a very fine
pattern of lines caused by fabric wrapping at the time of burial.
Diameter 5 inches (12.7 cm)
The collared disc is an ancient Chinese jade form with origins in the Neolithic period. Many well finished examples of widely
varying form and size have been discovered in Shang dynasty tombs. Several collared discs of different sizes and shapes
were found in the Shang dynasty tomb of the royal consort Fu Hao, for example, illustrated in Yinxu Fu Hao mu (Tomb of
Lady Hao at Yinxu in Anyang), Beijing, 1980, pls. LXXXVII-XCIV.
The simplicity of the form and its persistence in ancient burials ranging over a wide area and a long time span within the
archaic period can lead to imprecise dating this type of jade disc, but the very distinctive stone, polish and patination seen
in the present example are all characteristic of the jade collared discs found at Dian culture sites discovered in Yunnan and
dated to the Western Han Dynasty. Compare, for example, the two jade collared discs excavated in 1956 in Shizhaishan,
Jinning, Yunnan province, exhibited in the traveling exhibition organized by the Rietberg Museum in Zurich in 1986 and
illustrated by Lutz, Dian Ein Versunkenes Königreich in China, Zurich, 1986, p. 105, no. 54.
ГဏcϞჯ͗⒟cࢰ 12.7᩶Ϸ
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