Chinese Works of ArtCOLLARED RING
Jade
China, Late Shang dynasty, c. 1200 BC

有領玉環- 商代晚期, 公元前13世紀-前11世紀

Collared rings owe their name to the fact that the border of the central perforation extends to both sides, thus creating a ridge or collar. They form a particular category in the jade repertory of ancient China, mostly attested during the late Shang period: examples have been unearthed from the tomb of Fu Hao, at Anyang, Henan province (c.1200 BC) and in the Shang period sites of Dayangzhou, Xing’an, Jiangxi province and Sanxingdui, Guanghan, Sichuan. However, it is possible that these peculiar ornaments were created in other regions and then imported to the metropolitan centres of Shang China: their ‘foreign’ origin may explain why these collared rings disappeared from the jade repertory of shapes with the demise of the Shang dynasty. It is not clear how these ornaments were used, though there is evidence that they were worn as bracelets. Such rings were probably put on the wrist in early childhood and the person then grew with the ornament on the arm. During the late Neolithic, these rings were fashioned in other materials, such as clay, shell or ivory, as shown by finds from late Dawenkou culture tombs (c. 3000-2500 BC) in Shandong: jade became the standard medium only in the late Shang period. Moreover, these collared rings usually come in two types: plain, as this presented here, or with tiny grooves incised on the surface. Sometimes, as in examples from Shang tombs, their dimensions are larger so that they look more like discs. Comparable examples include those discovered in the late Shang tomb of Fu Hao and a collared disc in green jade from the “Samuel and Myrna Myers collection”, Salviati 2000, no.69.

This pendant is published in Filippo Salviati 4000 YEARS OF CHINESE ARCHAIC JADES Edition Zacke, Vienna 2017, no. 156

Provenance: From a German collection

DIAMETER 8.4 CM 直徑8.4 厘米