Chinese Works of ArtCLUB-SHAPED ORNAMENT
Jade
China, Late Neolithic period, Hongshan culture, c. 4700-2900 BC

勾形玉器- 新石器時代晚期, 紅山文化, 公元前35世紀-前30世紀

This pendant belongs to a category of Hongshan ornaments known in Chinese literature as gou or bing -hook or handleshaped ornaments. They invariably have an elongated form with a hole drilled at one of the extremities and a hook-shaped form at the other, a shape which recalls the protrusions often seen on Hongshan ‘hookedcloud’ ornaments. Two small notches separate the ‘handle’ of the pendant from the hooked protrusion, whose surface is marked by fine grooves. The suspension hole is slanted and drilled from one side only of the pendant. The translucent light-green jade is polished to a high lustre and has virtually no inclusions.

A similar pendant excavated from a Hongshan culture site in the Chifeng district, Right Bairin Banner, Inner Mongolia, is published in Yang Boda, Zhongguo meishu quanji: yuqi (Chinese works of art series: jade) vol.9, Beijing 1986, no.4; two other comparable pendants in the collections of the Liaoning Provincial Museum are reproduced in Mou Yongkang, Zhongguo yuqi quanji - 1 Yuanshi shehui (Chinese Jades: Vol.1, Early Societies), Shijiazhuang 1993, nos.8-9. Another similar pendant has been excavated from the tomb of Fu Hao of the late Shang period, Anyang (ca.1250 BC) and is illustrated in Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Yinxu yuqi (Jades from Yinxu), Wenwu Chubanshe, Beijing 1981, no.28. This jade is published in Filippo Salviati, Mysterious Jades of Ancient China, Edition Zacke 2014.

This pendant is published in Filippo Salviati 4000 YEARS OF CHINESE ARCHAIC JADES Edition Zacke, Vienna 2017, no. 30

Provenance: From an Austrian private collection

LENGTH 8,1 CM 長8,1 厘米