An archaic green jade scepter, Neolithic period, Hongshan culture | 新石器時代 紅山文化 玉勾形器

See a closely related jade example, with the same curved hook and two horizontal grooves below, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei (accession no. 購玉000404N000000000); another with a shorter shaft, excavated from the tomb of Fu Hao at Xiaotun, Anyang, Henan province, and included in Wu Ding yu Fu Hao: Yin Shang shengshi wenhua yishu tezhan / King Wu Ding and Lady Hao: Art and Culture of the Late Shang Dynasty, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2012, no. III-3. Attributed to the late Hongshan culture, the unique decoration of the jade is commonly accepted as a later, more abstract form of a mythical eagle's head with a long and thick beak. Thought to posses powers of transcending both the mythical and human realms, the eagle's head, when placed on a long shaft, such as the present lot, is seen as a scepter of rulership and was included in ritual rites given its powers to call upon the divine.