Page 68 - 2019 September 10th Sotheby's Important Chinese Art Junkunc Collection

215 A RARE PAIR OF ARCHAIC PALE GREEN JADE PENDANTS

WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY
西周 玉二聯環
together forming a huan, each of flattened arched form pierced at both ends with a small aperture, lightly impressed to one
side with an abstract design of stylized confronting mythical birds, the softly polished stone of a pale celadon color with
occasional sugar-brown areas (2)
Width 4¾ in., 12 cm

$ 20,000-30,000

PROVENANCE 來源
Primus Gallery, Los Angeles, 4th December 1960. Primus Gallery，洛杉磯，1960年12月4日
Collection of Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978). 史蒂芬•瓊肯三世（1978年逝）收藏

Close examination of the present lot reveals that one pendant has a slanted section at one edge. This is a special
characteristic of Western Zhou circular jades, discussed in Special Exhibition of Circular Jade, National Palace
Museum, Taipei, 1995, pp 21-22, where the author notes this chisel-like beveled edge on Western Zhou circular jades
is a distinctive feature of the period that has long been ignored or taken as a characteristic of imperfection in the
workmanship.

The most intriguing feature on the present lot is the design of four pairs of confronting birds impressed, possibly in black
ink, around one side of the pendants. As painted or impressed designs on jades are not known from the period, this
technique was possibly used to sketch a design that was intended to be carved.

It is not entirely impossible that this impression is original to the jade pendants, as ink can actually be preserved for a
long period of time. See two jade huan, excavated from the tomb of a Zhongshan king during the Warring States period,
in Pingshan county, Hebei province, each well preserved with two characters written in black ink on one side, exhibited in
The Cultural Relics and Art of the Ancient Zhongshan Kingdom, Shanxi Museum, Taiyuan, p. 105. The present impressed
design of confronting birds also closely resembles the casting design on Western Zhou dynasty bronze bells, such as one
published in Zhongguo wenwu jinghua daquan qingtongjuan [Compendium of Chinese art. Bronzes], Taipei, 1993, no. 581.

While jade plaques carved with a similar design are known to exist, such as one attributed to the middle Western Zhou
dynasty to early Spring and Autumn period, excavated from Liangdai village, Hancheng, Shaanxi province, exhibited in
The Cultural Grandeur of the Western Zhou Dynasty, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2012, cat. no. 137, no examples, of
the exact design appear to be recorded, which also raises the possibility that the design could have been impressed at a
later date.

本品玉環呈二聯制式，由兩半圓璜組成。細觀之，本品邊緣 以上猜測並非全無可能，若保存得恰，墨實可歷千載而不
見一端斜下削薄，為西周環形玉之特色。相關論述，可見 褪。河北省平山縣戰國時期中山王陵出土玉環兩例，便可為
《故宮環形玉器特展圖錄》，國立故宮博物院，台 證，其玉環一面均見墨書二字，至今尚存，清晰可見，展並
北，1995年，頁21-22；據編者論述，此一特色長期以來 錄於《中山風雲•古中山國文物藝術》，山西博物院，太
並不被人們所注意，即便注意到了，一般亦將其誤認為是因 原，頁105。仔細對比，本品墨印紋樣亦與西周時期青銅鐘
切割不整齊的製作瑕疵。 所飾鳥紋極似，可參考一例，載於《中國文物精華大全•青
銅卷》，台北，1993年，編號581。
本品一面見印跡，應為墨跡，留白作鳥紋四組，面面相向，
甚為妙殊。以墨繪紋飾於玉面，似非當時飾玉手法，故本例 然而目前尚未見有其他玉例飾有相同鳥紋，僅知有紋飾相近
墨飾或可推斷為雕刻前所印紋樣，後不知何緣由，其雕刻並 者，如陝西韓城梁代村遺址出土一西周中期至春秋早期玉飾
未完成。 例，刻相向鳥紋，展並刊於《赫赫宗周•西周文化特展》，
國立故宮博物院，台北，2012年，編號173，故此仍不能排
除本品墨印紋飾為後加之可能。

66 JUNKUNC: ARTS OF ANCIENT CHINA II