A very unusual white jade tapering owl-shaped ornament Neolithic period - early Shang dynasty | 新時期時代至商早期 或石家河文化 白玉鴞立祭壇紋飾

Chang Nai-chi Collection, circa 1940s.

J.T. Tai & Co., New York, prior to 1966.

Collection of Arthur M. Sackler (1913-1987).

Christie's New York, 18 March 2009, lot 291.

Chang Nai-chi 舊藏，約1940年代

戴潤齋舊藏，紐約，於1966年以前

賽克勒舊藏（1913-1987）

紐約佳士得，2009年3月18日，拍品編號291

Horace H.F. Jayne, Archaic Chinese Jades, The University Museum, Philadelphia, 1940, p.32, pl. VII, cat. no. 126.

Horace H.F. Jayne，《Archaic Chinese Jades》，賓夕法尼亞大學博物館，費城，1940年，頁32，圖版VII，編號126

The present lot showing an owl-like bird stands on an altar, depicted with a raised horizontal line as its upper platform, is extremely rare example of its type. The incised line patterns on this bird is similar to other excavated jades of the Shijiahe era in iconography, style and workmanship, but its outer contours may have been later refashioned, perhaps in the Shang Dynasty. The only similar published example is in the Qing court collection, Palace Museum Beijing, dated Western Zhou dynasty, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Jadeware (I), Beijing, 1995, pp. 118-9, no. 99, where the small fitting with the mask-shaped hook is similar in form to the present lot.

白玉，無沁。主題爲一玉鴞站立在以橫凸綫為上平臺的「祭壇」之上。鴞身部的胸、翅、尾、腿、爪均使用淺陰綫刻畫，簡潔而明快。鴞首則由頸部完全凸起，鴞足下的「祭壇」則用陰綫刻畫石家河文化典型的似雙目形紋飾，然其形製可能於商早期後改。與本品唯一可作比較之例，見北京故宮博物院清宮舊藏一件玉鴞形嵌飾，《故宮博物院藏文物珍品全集：玉器（上）》，北京，1995年，頁118-119，編號99。由於故宮博物院「玉鴞形嵌飾」「祭壇」由凸玄紋刻畫，缺少明確的石家河文化特徵，發表時定代為「西周」。