Page 18 - 2021 March 15th Fine Chinese Paintings and Works of Art, Bonhams NYC New York

PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF ROBERT P. YOUNGMAN A very similar jade pendant with comparable cut-out piercings and
overall profile, is illustrated in Gugong Bowuyuan Cang Wenwu
10 Zhenpin Quanji (Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace
A RUSSET, CELADON AND CALCIFIED JADE FIGURAL PENDANT Museum) Jadeware I, Hong Kong, 1995, p. 122, no. 102.
Western Zhou Dynasty
Of flattened curved outline, the figure seated with knees drawn in, with Compare with a very similarly envisioned jade zoomorphic pendant
a coiled dragon forming the body and with the face in profile on the illustrated by Liu Yang, Translucent World, Chinese Jade from the
convex edge below an elaborate bird-like head-dress, the decoration Forbidden City, Sydney, 2000, p.66, no. 19, where the author notes
formed from well-delineated simple ridged channels to both sides, that figures such as these, combining a sacred human and a dragon
pierced for suspension at both ends and also simple piercing to the or phoenix, were a new form created during the Western Zhou
legs, dragon and the earrings. dynasty. Their prototype can be traced to earlier Neolithic (Liangzhu
3 1/8in (8cm) across, approximately culture) models which combines images of a deity and animal mask or
to nearer precedents of Shang jade figures: two pendants excavated
from the Fuhao tomb depict combines bird and human figures with
$3,000 - 5,000 bent legs as illustrated in line drawings by Jessica Rawson, Chinese
Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, London, British Museum, 1995,
西周 人形玉珮 pp. 218-219, figs. 1-3, and another plaque dated to the 9th century
BCE illustrated on p. 51, fig. 38.

For an earlier Shang dynasty example, see John Finlay, The Chinese
Collection, Selected Works from the Norton Museum of Art, West
Palm Beach, 2003, pp. 112-113, no. 25.

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