A TIGER-FORM JADE PENDANT, LATE SHANG DYNASTY

A TIGER-FORM JADE PENDANT, LATE SHANG DYNASTY
China, 13th-11th century BC. The crouching tiger carved in profile, the body well detailed and decorated with double-line grooves, the mouth pierced for suspension. The translucent stone of a celadon tone with extensive russet shading, some black patches, and small areas of alteration.
Provenance:
A Western private collection. Roger Keverne Ltd., London, United Kingdom, December 2007. A distinguished English private collection, acquired from the above. Roger Keverne served as the Chairman of Asian Art in London and as the President of BADA. He began his 50-year career with Spink & Son, rising to head the Asian department by the age of only 28. He left Spink in 1992 to start his own gallery together with Miranda Clarke, his wife and business partner, in Mayfair, London, which eventually closed its doors in June 2020.
Published:
Roger Keverne, Fine and Rare Chinese Works of Art and Ceramics Summer Exhibition, London, 2007, page 101, no. 84.
Condition:
Very good condition overall with some old wear, traces of use and shallow surface scratches, an area of calcification to the tip of the tail with an associated minuscule loss. Fine, naturally grown patina. The jade with natural inclusions and fissures.
Weight: 11.3 g
Dimensions: Length 6.5 cm
An important stylistic feature
of the present pendant is the use of the so-called double-line grooves. On first inspection, it appears that these rise in low relief. But in fact this is an optical illusion, or trompe-l'œil effect, as those slender “relief lines” are actually flush with the object's surface and seem to rise in relief only because of the intaglio lines, or grooves, that flank them. Such trompe-l'œil lines are a rare feature, and found on the very finest Shang jades only.
The tiger
, called hu or laohu in Chinese, is among the most recognizable of the world's charismatic megafauna. Originating in China and northern Central Asia, the tiger was known to the earliest Chinese, who likely feared, admired, and respected it for its strength, ferocity, and regal bearing. Though its precise symbolism in Shang times (c. 1600-1046 BC) remains unknown, the tiger doubtless played a totemic, tutelary, or talismanic role. By the Western Han period (206 BC-AD 9)—a thousand years after this pendant was made—the tiger was regarded as the “king of the hundred beasts”, or baishou zhi wang, due to its power and ferocity and especially to the markings on its forehead which typically resemble the character wang, or “king”. In addition, not only did the tiger figure among the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac, but it gained a place among the auspicious animals that symbolize the four cardinal directions—the white tiger, or baihu, of the west, the azure dragon of the east, the vermillion bird of the south, and the black tortoise of the north.
Literature comparison:
Compare a related jade tiger plaque, also dated to the Shang dynasty, in the collection of the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, object number B60J538. Compare a related jade tiger plaque, also dated to the Shang dynasty, circa 1200-1050 BC, in the collection of the British Museum, museum number 1935,0115.19.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Bonhams, 30 May 2017, lot 20
Price: HKD 562,500 or approx.
EUR
84,000
converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A jade tiger and a jade bird, the tiger Shang dynasty, the bird Western Zhou dynasty
Expert remark: Compare the closely related pose and manner of carving, also employing double-line grooves, the mouth similarly pierced for suspension, the eyes and mouth near-identical. Note the smaller size (3.9 cm) and that the lot also comprises a small jade bird (2.5 cm) from a later period.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Sotheby's Paris, 15 December 2016, lot 9
Price: EUR 20,000 or approx.
EUR 23,500
adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: Pendentif en jade Dynastie Shang, ca. 1200-1100 avant J.-C.
Expert remark: Compare the closely related pose and manner of carving, with similar double-line grooves. Note the slightly larger size (8.2 cm).
商末虎形青玉珮
中國，公元前十三至十一世紀。珮呈扁片狀，以陰刻雙線技法雕琢半蹲老虎的側身形，虎口處，琢一小穿。局部淺褐色沁。
來源：
西方私人收藏 ；英國倫敦Roger Keverne Ltd.藝廊，2007年12月；一個傑出的英國私人收藏，購於上述藝廊。Roger Keverne曾任倫敦亞洲藝術主席和BADA總裁。他在 Spink & Son 開始了 50 年的職業生涯，年僅 28 歲就升任亞洲部負責人。他於 1992 年離開 Spink，與他的妻子兼商業夥伴 Miranda Clarke 一起在倫敦梅菲爾開設了自己的畫廊 ，最終於 2020年 6 月關門。
出版：
Roger Keverne，《Fine and Rare Chinese Works of Art and Ceramics Summer Exhibition》，2007年，倫敦，頁101，編號84.
品相：
整體狀況極好，有一些磨損、使用痕跡和表面淺劃痕、尾部尖端有鈣化區域以及相應的微小缺損。細膩的包漿，有天然內沁和裂縫的玉料。
重量：11.3 克
尺寸：長 6.5 厘米
由於字數限制，完整中文敘述請至www.zacke.at查看。