Rare Grand Disque en Jade, Bi Dynastie des Han Occidentaux

le jade sculpté en forme de disque avec une petite ouverture circulaire centrale bordée d'un motif de cordelette, les larges bords rythmés de cercles concentriques délimitant les registres de décoration, chaque face ornée de très légers picots accentués par des spirales gravées, les bords extérieurs soulignés d'une bande de masques de taotie dans un lacis géométrique, la pierre d'une teinte vert foncé avec des taches jaunes, D.W 3251

Arts de La Chine Ancienne, Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, 1937, no. 121.

Georges Salles, Arts de La Chine Ancienne, Paris, 1937, cat. no. 121 (not illustrated). 

The disc is in very good overall condition. It is thickly and finely carved from a large piece of jade, the stone a dark green tone with some yellowish calcified parts and with some translucency under light. Both sides are well-finished and polished. There are tiny fritts scattered along the exterior and interior rims/edges. There are cutting marks visible on both sides of the disc and series of thick but shallow parallel lines carved in a regular pattern among the decorative band. The grid is more pronounced in the central decorative zone on one side than on the other. The inventory number is inscribed in black on the inside edge of the disc.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Large jade discs with central holes known as bi and with surfaces that were carved with relief patterns that reflected the light and made the jades gleam began to appear in significant numbers in tombs of the late Eastern Zhou period. By the Western Han period, the relief patterns of spirals and scrolls were supplemented by hexagonal projections and bordered by a wide band carved with animal masks with intertwined bodies and limbs such as on the present disc from the David-Weill Collection. Discs of this type carved of dark green jade have been found in Western Han tombs of members of the Imperial family, such as the King of Nan Yue at Guangzhou, Guangdong, but also in the tombs of Prince Liu sheng and his consort at Mancheng, Hebei. They were strategically positioned within the coffins around and on the bodies of the deceased thus suggesting they played an important role in the afterlife as pointed out by Jessica Rawson in Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, pp. 247-251, and cat. no. 15:4.

A surprisingly large number of these large dark green jade discs are preserved in collections in the West formed in the 1920s and 1930s, most notably the Sonnenschein and Winthrop Collections. Compare two discs in the Winthrop Collection, illustrated in Max Loehr and Louisa G. Fitzgerald Huber, Ancient Chinese Jades from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1975, cat. nos. 533 and 534; see also Alfred Salmony, Archaic Jades from the Edward and Louise Sonnenschein Collection, Chicago 1952, pl. LXX, for a disc from the Sonnenschein Collection; and three other discs illustrated by C. T. Loo in An Exhibition of Chinese Archaic Jades, West Palm Beach, 1950, pl. XXXVIII:2, 3 and 6.