A celadon and russet jade snake, Eastern Zhou dynasty, Warring States period

Eskenazi Ltd., London, 18th December 1992.

This unusual and exceptionally rare jade carving appears to be almost unique in its direct representation of a serpent but can be suitably compared to a small group of pendants characterised by sinuous bodies carved with a distinctive 'rope-twist' design. Compare a closely related dragon pendant preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated in Na Zhiliang, Yuqi cidian [Dictionary of Chinese jade], Hong Kong, 1985, fig. 0238; and another with the same twist-rope motif in the Cleveland Museum of Art, illustrated in Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, 1991, p. 9. See also a yellowish-celadon jade ‘dragon’ pendant, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 9th April 2024, lot 3611; and an excavated phoenix pendant with similar decoration, attributed to the late Warring States period, in the Anhui Provincial Institute of Archaeology, published in Yang Boda, Zhongguo yuqi quanji [Complete Collection of Chinese Jades], vol. 3, Hebei, 2005, pl. 284.