The present lot is rare for the combination of the flat jade spoon receptacle with an agate handle. It is noteworthy that the carefully incised archaic scrolls on the spoon's jade component is characteristic of the decorative motifs on early Han dynasty jades. The agate handle however, resembles agate dragon-shaped xi pendants from the Warring States period, see two examples in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum: Jade 3, Beijing, 2011, pp.204-205, nos.208-209.|The practice of combining earlier and contemporaneous elements appeared to be quite common in the Han dynasty, including the addition of gold or bronze attachments, or carved alterations to earlier jade pieces. See two examples of jades dated to the Eastern Zhou dynasty but altered to petal-shaped pendants during the Han dynasty, excavated from the tomb of Qiemoshu in Ganquan, Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province; see also a dragon-shaped pendant, Western Han dynasty, with a later attached gilt-bronze animal-head fitting, excavated from the tomb of the King of Nanyue in Guangzhou, both illustrated by Gu Fang, The Pictorial Handbook of Ancient Chinese Jades, Beijing, 2007, pp.293-294.|匕身呈桃形片狀，正面以陰線刻丁字雲雷紋，邊沿飾陰線一周，背面近邊沿處刻兩條陰線並間以S形紋。匕柄首端嵌一銅鎏金虎頭，張口瞪目，咬住匕身，後嵌一瑪瑙龍形觽為匕柄。|漢代墓葬出土玉器中已出現沿用前代玉器進行改造或重新設計的改製玉器，稱為改形器。例如廣東省廣州市南越王墓出土一件金鉤穀紋玉龍，玉匠在已殘端之龍體上，重新設計虎頭金鉤與之相配。又如江蘇省揚州市甘泉妾莫書西漢墓出土的桃形片玉飾，其紋飾具有春秋戰國時期風格，為漢代改形玉，詳見古方，《中國古玉器圖典》，北京，2007年，頁293-294。|此件玉匕匕身及獸面紋飾具有明顯漢代風格，然而所用之瑪瑙匕柄則更近似戰國時期的瑪瑙龍形觽，如北京故宮博物院藏兩件戰國瑪瑙觽，見《故宮博物院藏品大系:玉器編3:春秋戰國》，北京，2011年，頁204-205，圖版208及209。