Jade. China, Late Shang dynasty, 13th - 11th century BC 玉螳螂 - 商代晚期, 公元前13世紀-前11世紀 This rather sculptural ornament shaped like a praying mantis in profile represents one of the many animals that were carved in jade during the final phase of the Shang dynasty. The insect’s head, with its bulging eyes, is rendered with just a few other carved lines: one to delimit the head from the neck, and others that define the triangular nose and the mouth. The wings are folded along the sides of the body and decorated with a scrollwork pattern of raised lines that is similar in style to the decoration of the standing bird no.18. The symmetry is also reflected in the structure of the carving, which balances perfectly on its rectangular base: this is pierced with a hole that runs from the top to its flat bottom. The ornament is almost totally opaque due to extensive calcification, with a few zones of amber and black and very few discernable areas of translucent light green. As for other late Shang period jades presented in this auction, this carving has almost exact counterparts in jades discovered in the 13th century BC tomb of Lady Fu Hao, at Anyang, Henan province: see for example the praying mantis in jade published in Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Yinxu yuqi 殷墟玉器 (Jades from Yinxu), Wenwu Chubanshe, Beijing 1981, no.65 (right). The same jade is also reproduced in Gu Fang, Zhongguo gu yuqi tu dian 中國古玉器圖典 (The pictorial handbook of ancient Chinese jades), Beijing 2007, p.157, together with a Western Zhou example of a praying mantis discovered in the Jin State tomb no.63 at Quwo, in Shanxi province. A further relatable carving is in the collections of the Palace Museum, Beijing: Zhou Nanquan, Gugong bowuyuan zang wenwu zhenpin quanji - Yuqi (shang) 故宮博物院藏文物珍品全集 ．玉器上 (The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Jadeware I), Hong Kong 1995, no.57. Finally, another late Shang period praying mantis from the Sam and Myrna Myers collection is published in J.P. Desroches, Two Americans in Paris. A Quest for Asian Art, Paris 2016, no.104. Provenance: From an old Austrian collection LENGTH 11.3 CM - WIDTH 3.7CM 長11.3厘米 -寬 3.7 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.