Chinese Works of ArtSMALL BEAD WITH PATTERN OF CURLS
Jade
China, Eastern Zhou, Spring and Autumn, 6th - 5th Century BC

小玉珠- 東周, 春秋, 公元前6-5世紀

During the Eastern Zhou period, beads like this one were strung together with other jades - discs, rings and huang, or arched pendants - to make up elaborate necklaces worn by members of the nobility. The bead has a cone-like profile, with one side shorter than the other. It is rather thick with a hole drilled throughout and carved from a dark-coloured type of jade with blackish areas and a chalkywhite, altered strip. The surface is decorated with fat, differently oriented scrolls in low relief which are often used in the decoration of 5th century Eastern Zhou jades, as exemplified by those found in the tomb of the Marquis Yi of the Zeng state, dated after 433 BC.

Compare a bead from the collection of R. H. Ellsworth (1929-2014) sold at Christie’s New York on 19 March 2015 (Sale 11420), Lot 578. And a similar bead sold at Zacke Galerie in December 2016. Very similar examples in “Chinese Archaic Jades from the Kwan Collection”, University of Hong Kong, no. 163. Another comparable piece in “Jades of the Eastern Chou and Wu Ch´u Dynasties”, Taiwan 1979, no. 167.

This pendant is published in Filippo Salviati 4000 YEARS OF CHINESE ARCHAIC JADES Edition Zacke, Vienna 2017, no. 238

Provenance: From a Viennese collection

HEIGHT 4.7 CM 高4.7 厘米