J.J. Lally & Co., Oriental Art / New York City, New York
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15.
A NEOLITHIC WHITE MARBLE OWL FORM PENDANT
Hongshan Culture, circa 3500 – 2000 B.C.
simply carved from a solid block, the stylized bird with rounded protruding eyes and small pointed beak tucked in at the top of the swelling breast, the feet delineated by short vertical grooves on an undercut ledge above the forward-flaring wedge shaped tail with rounded underside, the outspread wings defined by a shallow groove around the perimeter in front, well rounded in back and ending in two forward-flaring points behind the tail, pierced behind the head with a pair of conical holes joined to form a ‘bull nose’ suspension loop, the fine white marble with some dark stains to the back and earth encrustation all over.
Width 2 3⁄4 inches (7 cm)
Many carved jade owl pendants of closely related design have been published in archaeological reports on excavations at Hongshan sites and in museum catalogues, but no other example carved from marble appears to have been previously published.
A jade owl form pendant of smaller size excavated from tomb no. 1 at Hutougou, a Hongshan burial site in Fuxin county, Liaoning province and now in the Liaoning Provincial Museum, is illustrated by Gu (ed.), Zhongguo chutu yuqi quanji (Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China), Vol. 2, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Beijing, 2005, p. 116.
A similar Hongshan jade owl form pendant of larger size in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing is illustrated by Gu (ed.), Zhongguo chuanshi yuqi quanji (Chinese Jades in Traditional Collections), Vol. 1, Neolithic Period, Shang, Western Zhou, Spring and Autumn Period, Warring States Period, Beijing, 2010, p. 21. Another Hongshan jade pendant of closely related form in the collection of Aohanqi Museum, Inner Mongolia, is illustrated by Gu (ed.), op. cit., 2010, p. 22.
Compare also the jade owl form pendant in the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, illustrated by Dohrenwend, Chinese Jades in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 1971, p. 43.
新石器時代 紅山白大理石鴞 寬 7 厘米
15.
A NEOLITHIC WHITE MARBLE OWL FORM PENDANT
Hongshan Culture, circa 3500 – 2000 B.C.
Width 2 3⁄4 inches (7 cm)