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 exquisite scabbard slide, one of the jade ornaments for the sword used by the Han nobility, is decorated with two hornless chi 螭 dragons carved in high relief whose sinuous bodies curve and curl along the surface and meet face to face at one end: as often seen on similar scabbard slides, one dragon is depicted fully, while the other only in part. This latter dragon seems to emerge from the jade, similarly to the two dragons carved in relief on the previous ring, no.38. Both dragons have long crests that descend along their necks and end in an elegant volute: the dragon represented in full has a long, trifurcated tail and fur on its legs, indicated by finely incised parallel lines. The highly polished celadon green jade is of an exquisite quality and quite translucent with some ochre/russet patches that emphasize some of the dragons’ physical features, such as their heads, and the tail and limbs of the dragon in full. A scabbard slide of the same exact dimensions, type of jade and decoration has been presented by the J.J. Lally & Co. gallery in New York in the exhibition Ancient Chinese Jade. From the Neolithic to the Han, 2016, no.67. A second comparable jade from the Qing court collection is in the Palace Museum, Beijing: see 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.182. Compare also two similar Han period scabbard slides auctioned at Christie’s Hong Kong on 2 October 2017, sale 14709, “The Pavilion Sale”, lot 12; and on 31 May 2017, sale 15657, “Adorning the Kings, lot 2706. Provenance: From a Luxembourg collection LENGTH 8 CM - WIDTH 2.2 CM 長8 厘米 -寬2.2 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.