A TIGER-SHAPED PENDANT, SPRING AND AUTUMN PERIODJade. China, Eastern Zhou, Spring and Autumn, 6th – 5th century BCPublished: Filippo Salviati, 4000 Years of Chinese Archaic Jades, Edition Zacke, Vienna 2017, pp. 176-177, no 194.Finely carved as a tiger with slightly arched body, curling tail and paws. Two holes are drilled in the tail and in the head. The design is rather sketchy, with just a couple of indentations to suggest the mouth and chin that are highlighted by the curls incised on the surface. The body is completely covered with variously shaped scrolls, some resembling stylized dragon heads, interspersed with striped bands and scale-like motifs. These additional elements of the design suggest that the pattern is actually a mixture of different though unrecognizable animals. The translucent stone is of green tone with brownish shadings and areas of calcification.A tiger-shaped jade carved with a similar surface decoration was excavated in 1992 at Yimen, Baoji, Shaanxi, from a 6th century tomb (M2:128) of the Qin state, which eventually unified China at the end of the Warring States period. Still in 1992, two other examples, identical to the one from Baoji, were discovered in southern China in a late Spring and Autumn tomb at Hushuguan, Zheshan, near the city of Suzhou, Jiangsu province, within the realm of the ancient Wu state.LENGTH 7 cmProvenance: Private Collection of Irene and Wolfgang Zacke (1942-2022).