J.J. Lally & Co., Oriental Art / New York City, New York

The collared disc is an ancient Chinese jade form with origins in the Neolithic period. Many well finished examples of widely varying form and size have been discovered in Shang dynasty tombs. Several collared discs of different sizes and shapes were found in the Shang dynasty tomb of the royal consort Fu Hao, for example, illustrated in Yinxu Fu Hao mu (Tomb of Lady Hao at Yinxu in Anyang), Beijing, 1980, pls. LXXXVII – XCIV.

The simplicity of the form and its persistence in ancient burials ranging over a wide area and a long time span within the archaic period can lead to imprecise dating this type of jade disc, but the very distinctive stone, polish and patination seen in the present example are all characteristic of the jade collared discs found at Dian culture sites discovered in Yunnan and dated to the Western Han Dynasty. Compare, for example, the two jade collared discs excavated in 1956 in Shizhaishan, Jinning, Yunnan province, exhibited in the traveling exhibition organized by the Rietberg Museum in Zurich in 1986 and illustrated by Lutz, Dian Ein Versunkenes Königreich in China, Zurich, 1986, p. 105, no. 54.