Jade. China, Han Dynasty, 2nd - 1st century BC 雙螭紋玉璲 - 漢代, 公元前2世紀-前1世紀 This beautiful, masterfully carved disc in green jade is decorated with a different pattern on each side. The rounded top of the disc is carved with hornless chi 螭 dragons in relief whose sinuous bodies swirl amidst clouds, or vapour, emerging and disappearing into the jade. The dragons’ heads face the central hole from opposite points and their tails are finely decorated with parallel carved grooves that highlight the curves. The back of this elegant disc is decorated with a regular pattern of double-linked scrolls framed within two plain bands that follow the perimeter of the central hole and the circumference of the ring. The smoothly polished disc is a lovely shade of pale green jade with many light and dark brown areas and traces of brown along the carvings, that further highlight the pattern of the incisions and carvings. There is also some calcification in these brown areas which has thus rendered the jade opaque. A disc with a similar decoration of dragons in relief is in the Sam and Myrna Myers collection: see J.P. Desroches, Two Americans in Paris. A Quest for Asian Art, Paris 2016, no.176. A similar pattern of double- linked scrolls is also seen on a disc published in F. Salviati, 4000 Years of Chinese Archaic Jades, Edition Zacke, Vienna 2017, no.234. Provenance: From a Luxembourg collection DIAMETER 8 CM - HOLE4 CM 直径 8 厘米 - 孔徑 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.