A PAIR OF JADE 'DRAGON-HEAD' PLAQUES, HUANGWarring States PeriodEach arc-shaped pendant carved with tight spirals in low relief, terminating at both ends with a dragon head detailed with a slit mouth, with a small circular aperture drilled at the centre, the surface of opaque mottled grey-white tone.Each 12cm (4 1/3in) wide (2).Provenance: 戰國 龍首玉璜一對Provenance:The Sze Yuan Tang Collection來源：思源堂收藏Ornamental jade carvings like huang plaques, pendants and beads, were manifestations of wealth and status, and were used as funerary items for the deceased. Jade ornaments also functioned to protect and preserve the physical body. These ornamental carvings were assembled in sets according to the time's fashions.By the Warring States period, where long garments which required a belt at the waist became popular, pendent sets moved from being worn around the neck to hanging down a belt. A more extravagant aesthetic appeared fashionablepared to the early Zhou dynasty, with larger sized pieces of jade carvings including elaborate bi discs, beads and huang, each typically ornately embellished with raised bosses, incised carving and openwork dragons. See Art in Quest of Heaven and Truth – Chinese Jades through the Ages, Taipei, 2015, p.82.Double-dragon-headed jade huang plaques were very popular, as evidenced by many examples in museums. Although they vary, the dragon heads are normally carved with pointed snouts and fierce expressions. The present pair of plaques are rarer for their rounded snouts and slightly more benign expressions.pare a related jade huang with similarly styled dragon heads and spiral bosses, illustrated inpendium of Collections in the Palace Museum: Jade 3, Beijing, 2011, p.136, no.136.此對玉璜青色泛綠，表面白化。體扁平，弧形呈半圓，雙面雕刻紋飾相同。璜的兩端琢為龍首，對稱雕刻，龍首有角，菱形眼睛，卷鼻上翹，口部微張，器身以浮雕飾密集的榖紋，器頂中間鑽一小孔，可供繫佩。整體造型優美，雕工精細。在中國古代，玉璜與玉琮、玉璧、玉圭、玉璋和玉琥被稱為六器。六器為《周禮》中被稱為祭祀天地四方之神的禮器，此天地四方各為「以蒼璧禮天，以黃琮禮地，以青圭禮東方，以赤璋禮南方，以白琥禮西方，以玄璜禮北方」。玉璜由殷商時期的禮儀用品發展成為保存屍體而琢制的組佩飾件，作為身份、地位和財富的象徵。大約在春秋、戰國時期，貴族們流行把上衣跟下裳連在一起，稱為「深衣」，從而需要在!...