A pale celadon jade 'dragon' pendant, Late Shang dynasty | 商晚期　龍紋玉觿

Teng Shu-p’ing, Collectors’ Exhibition of Archaic Chinese Jades, Palace Museum, Taipei, 1999, cat. no. 119.

Sun Qingwei, Jades of Western Zhou Dynasty, Aurora Art Museum, Taipei, 2005, pl. 79. 

C-shaped jade pendants decorated with dragons and phoenixes emerged in the late Shang period around the time of Fu Hao (c. 1200 BC) and became popular in the Zhou dynasty and continued to be used during the Han dynasty. The design of the dragon on the present lot, with its bold lines of carving and mushroom-form horn is closely related to the Shang dynasty examples, such as a jade dragon pendant, late Shang dynasty, in the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, illustrated in Yang Boda, Zhongguo yuqi quanji, [Complete collection of Chinese jades], vol. 1, Hebei, 2005, no. 102. Compare also a jade dragon pendant with a similar form, Western Zhou dynasty, in the National Museum of China, illustrated in ibid., no.240.

展覽

鄧淑蘋，《羣玉別藏續集》，故宮博物院，台北，1999年，編號119

出版

孫慶偉，《西周玉器》，震旦藝術博物館，台北，2005年，圖版79

青玉玉質，局部有褐色沁斑及少量硃砂。器型成C形，整體作一拱身龍興，身細長，尾尖，口微張，龍口部兩側以砣具減地成一凹槽，口上鑽有一孔，龍頭飾菱形眼及蘑菇形角。C形龍紋玉佩最早在商代晚期出現，與其他玉佩飾約在婦好時期（約公元前1200年）開始盛行，並在周代至漢代沿用。此器剛勁的紋飾和蘑菇形的龍角均具有商代晚期玉器的遺風，如中國社會科學院考古研究所藏一件商代晚期玉龍形璜，見楊柏達，《中國玉器全集（上）》，河北，2005年，圖102。另見陝西省長安縣普渡村出土一件西周玉曲體龍，現藏於中國國家博物館，見同著錄，圖240。