Jade. China, Late Neolithic period, Hongshan culture, c.3500-2500 BC 勾雲形玉佩 - 新石器時代晚期, 紅山文化, 約公元前3500-2500年 This thin and very delicate ornament is formed by a large central curl with undulating extensions that design a hook-shaped contour resembling a cloud, thus the denomination, “hooked-cloud”. The smooth wide grooves that follow the outline of the carved design give it an interesting tactile quality and make the jade glitter in the light. The suspension hole, drilled from both sides in the upper central area of the jade, is strongly slanted, as the perforations on Hongshan jades often are. The semi-translucent stone is light green in colour with diffused amber and brownish striations throughout, due to the high iron content and other inclusions in the stone. The closest comparable example is a Hongshan jade pendant of virtually the same shape but more than double in size (16 cm in length) that is part of the collections of the Tianjin Museum of Art and reproduced in Mou Yongkang, Zhongguo yuqi quanji - 1 Yuanshi shehui中國玉器全集–1:原始社會 (Chinese Jades: Vol.1, Early Societies), 1993, no.13. See also a similar ornament published in F. Salviati, 4000 Years of Chinese Archaic Jades, Edition Zacke, Vienna 2017, no.21. Provenance: From an old Austrian collection LENGTH 7 CM - WIDTH 4 CM 長7 厘米 -寬 4 厘米 Expertise: Univ. Prof. Filippo Salviati All jades in this catalogue have been professionally examined, authenticated and dated by Univ. Prof. Filippo Salviati. Professor Salviati teaches Chinese and Korean art at Sapienza University in Rome, in the Italian Institute of Oriental Studies. He is a world expert on archaic Chinese jades, having released multiple publications and being cited by renowned auction houses such as Sotheby’s.