J.J. Lally & Co., Oriental Art / New York City, New York
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A NEOLITHIC OPENWORK JADE PLAQUE
Longshan Culture, circa 3000 – 1700 B.C.
elaborately pierced and carved in outline with a stacked symmetrical arrangement of hooks, scrolls, plumes and apertures, the silhouetted shapes all mirrored left and right of center and rising from a short pointed projection at the base to a square opening near the top surmounted by a small winged mask shaped element, the flat surface smoothly polished all over, one side incised with thin lines loosely following the outline of the design, the pale olive green jade with cloudy white and tan mottling throughout.
Length 4 1⁄4 inches (10.8 cm)
A pair of small Longshan jade plaques very similar to the winged mask shaped uppermost central element of the present plaque, excavated at the Taosi site, a major Longshan culture ruin in Xiangfen county, Shanxi province, is illustrated in Yu hun guo hun: yuqi, yu wenhua, Xia dai Zhongguo wenming zhan (Soul of Jade, Soul of the Nation: Exhibition of Jade, Jade Culture, and the Xia Dynasty Civilization in China), Hangzhou, 2013, p. 89.
Compare also the pair of small jade ‘dragon and phoenix’ plaques carved in a similar openwork silhouette style excavated from tomb no. 14 at the Sunjiagang site, Li county, Hunan province, illustrated by Gu (ed.), Zhongguo chutu yuqi quanji (Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China), Vol. 10, Hubei, Hunan, Beijing, 2005, pp. 154 and 155, described as Shijiahe culture (circa 2400-1900 B.C.), contemporary with Longshan culture.
A Longshan jade adze in the Shandong Provincial Museum, decorated on the handle with an elaborate incised mask very similar in style and outline to the uppermost central element of the present plaque is illustrated by Gu (ed.), Zhongguo chutu yuqi quanji (Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China), Vol. 4, Shandong, Beijing, 2005, p. 16.
Compare also the Longshan openwork jade plaque of related form, surmounted by an eagle with wings displayed, illustrated by Bai (ed.), Tianjin bowuguan cang yu (Jade Wares Collected by the Tianjin Museum), Beijing, 2012, p. 32, no. 015.
新石器時代 龍山玉飾 長 10.8 厘米
