A rare pale celadon jade 'mask' bead, Late Shang dynasty | 商晚期　獸面紋玉管

Tiffany Chen, Selected Works of Jade, Aurora Art Museum, Taipei, 2003, pl. 51.

Tsai Ching-Liang, Jades of Shang Dynasty, Aurora Art Museum, Taipei, 2010, pl. 113.

The semi-translucent and well-polished jade bead features a slender mid section separated into two sections by two central ridges. On the uppers section are two frontal masks and there are two reversed patterns on the lower section. Such symmetrical designs of masks are unusual in the Shang dynasty. See a rectangular jade ornament dated to early Western Zhou dynasty but with a similar symmetrical design of mythical masks facing each other in the Tianjin Museum of Art, illustrated in Yang Boda, Zhongguo yuqi quanji [Complete collection of Chinese jades], Hebei, 2005, no. 300.

出版

陳臻儀，《古玉選粹》，震旦藝術博物館，台北，2003年，圖版51

蔡慶良，《商代玉器》，震旦藝術博物館，台北，2010年，圖版113

青白色玉質，圓柱形，器身微束腰，中間以二圈凸弦紋劃分為上下兩節。上下分別雕刻兩組獸面正反相對，每節獸面彼此相背，這種對稱設計的紋飾在商代玉飾中並不多見。參看天津市藝術博物館藏一件西周早期白玉獸面紋扁勒，同樣雕刻上下對稱式獸面紋，見楊伯達，《中國玉器全集（上）》，河北，2005年，編號300。