Period:Shang dynasty Production date:15thC BC-10thC BC
Materials:jade
Technique:carved, incised, polished,
Subjects:dragon
Dimensions:Width: 5.10 centimetres
Description:
Dragon pendant of pale green translucent jade with light brown veining and inclusions with some earth encrustation. The curled bottlehorn dragon has a prominent head with fierce eyes, open jaws displaying jagged teeth and a crenellated spine.
IMG
![图片[1]-pendant BM-2022-3034.99-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/Shang dynasty/Jades/mid_Jade_99.jpg)
Comments:The body is carved with double-line incisions and both sides are similarly decorated. There is one slanting bi-conical perforation. Late Shang. See Loo 1950, Ip Yee 1983, and Keverne 1991. This coiled dragon is carved out of a thick flat slice of jade. Its large head, shown in profile, has an open jaw with teeth marked as small serrations. A slit complete the mouth. Below the jaw a relief scroll marks the edge of the lower part of the face, and at the top, above an eye, is a bottle horn. There is a scale-shaped motif in incised lines just behind the head. The coiled body has notched flanges along the spine, thin ridges of meander across the surface, and it terminates in a neat coil, which forms a perforation. A second perforation is drilled from both sides in the flange just behind the bottle horn. Some of the meander on the body suggests a claw. Both well polished sides of the piece are identical. In this flat pendant the Hongshan dragon form has been thoroughly modified with reference to Shang traditions of jade and bronze design. It is a persistent characteristic of Shang jade carving that a form first developed in the round was later used more widely in a a flattened version, as here. Several very similar examples of dragon pendants have come from Fu Hao’s tomb. In the archaeological report they are described as jue, or slit rings, that were probably used as earrings during the Neolithic period, and later revived, perhaps as grave jades. See Rawson 1995, p.211, cat.no.12.4.
Materials:jade
Technique:carved, incised, polished,
Subjects:dragon
Dimensions:Width: 5.10 centimetres
Description:
Dragon pendant of pale green translucent jade with light brown veining and inclusions with some earth encrustation. The curled bottlehorn dragon has a prominent head with fierce eyes, open jaws displaying jagged teeth and a crenellated spine.
IMG
Comments:The body is carved with double-line incisions and both sides are similarly decorated. There is one slanting bi-conical perforation. Late Shang. See Loo 1950, Ip Yee 1983, and Keverne 1991. This coiled dragon is carved out of a thick flat slice of jade. Its large head, shown in profile, has an open jaw with teeth marked as small serrations. A slit complete the mouth. Below the jaw a relief scroll marks the edge of the lower part of the face, and at the top, above an eye, is a bottle horn. There is a scale-shaped motif in incised lines just behind the head. The coiled body has notched flanges along the spine, thin ridges of meander across the surface, and it terminates in a neat coil, which forms a perforation. A second perforation is drilled from both sides in the flange just behind the bottle horn. Some of the meander on the body suggests a claw. Both well polished sides of the piece are identical. In this flat pendant the Hongshan dragon form has been thoroughly modified with reference to Shang traditions of jade and bronze design. It is a persistent characteristic of Shang jade carving that a form first developed in the round was later used more widely in a a flattened version, as here. Several very similar examples of dragon pendants have come from Fu Hao’s tomb. In the archaeological report they are described as jue, or slit rings, that were probably used as earrings during the Neolithic period, and later revived, perhaps as grave jades. See Rawson 1995, p.211, cat.no.12.4.
© Copyright
The copyright of the article belongs to the author, please keep the original link for reprinting.
THE END
