A yellowish-celadon jade openwork 'human-dragon' plaque, Mid - late Western Zhou dynasty | 西周中晚期 淺青黃玉透雕人首龍紋項佩飾

Collection of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth (1929-2014), New York, no. JI 100 (label). 

安思遠（1929-2014年）收藏，紐約，編號 JI 100 （標籤）

The Grandeur of Chinese Art Treasures: Min Chiu Society Golden Jubilee Exhibition, Hong Kong Museum of Art，Hong Kong, 2010, cat. no. 192.

Jenny F. So, Chinese Jades from the Cissy and Robert Tang Collection, The Chinese University of Hong Kong Art Museum, Hong Kong, 2015, cat. no. 13.

《博古存珍 ─ 敏求精舍金禧紀念展》，香港藝術館，香港，2010年，編號192

蘇芳淑，《玉澤恆輝：喜聞過齋藏玉》，香港中文大學文物館，香港，2015年，編號13

The present reticulated and well carved plaque has an unusual trapezoidal form, with four sets of small holes drilled into the thickness at the top, and eight sets at the bottom, visible only from the back of the plaque. Jade plaques with similar features from recent excavations of the dated tombs of the Western Zhou period have revealed that these plaques had a relatively short lifespan at the end of the Western Zhou period. They serve as the bridging component in an elaborate and colourful ornament, comprising strings of agate, faience, and jade beads emerging from its narrow top and hanging from its wide base, for example, see a set of jade ornaments, Western Zhou, excavated in 1990 from the Western Zhou tomb at Pingdingshan, Henan province, illustrated in Yang Boda, Zhongguo yuqi quanji [Complete collection of Chinese jades], Hebei, 2005, no. 276. See also a trapezoidal plaque with strings of beads, excavated from Rui state, Liangdaicun, Hancheng, Shaanxi province, currently in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Golden Age of the Rui State: Zhou Dynasty Treasures from Hancheng, Shaanxi province, Shanghai, 2012, p. 127.

此透雕人首龍紋項佩飾整體呈梯形，頂部開四小孔，底部開八小孔，且僅從玉珮背面可見。從近期西周墓葬出土資料顯示，此類佩飾僅於西周晚期很短一段時間存在，他們是組成繁複精美的串飾組佩的重要的一部分，其上下開孔用於系鏈以碧玉、瑪瑙、青玉管組成的串飾，因此其紋飾往往具有協通上下，以承天體的意義。參看 1990 年和河南平頂山出土的一組西周玉佩飾，現藏於河南省博物館，見楊伯達，《中國玉器全集》，河北，2005 年，編號 276。另見陝西省渭南韓城市梁帶村芮國遺址出土的一件梯形玉飾，上有珠串，現藏上海博物館，見《金玉華年 : 陝西韓城出土周代芮國文物珍品》，上海，2012 年，頁 127。