A RARE RECTANGULAR BEAD COVERED WITH AN INTRICATE PATTERN OF IMMORTALS AND MYTHICAL CREATURES

Jade, China. Eastern Han, AD 25-220 四象, 仙, 西王母紋玉剛卯 - 東漢, 東漢, 公元25-220

Han rectangular jade beads engraved with short inscriptions are known in Chinese as gang mao 剛卯 (or yan mao嚴卯). The present is particularly special because the whole surface is entirely decorated with a dense pattern of auspicious motifs: the animals of the four directions (si xiang 四象), an immortal (xian 仙), and a female seated figure that may be identified as Xiwangmu 西王母, or the “Queen Mother of the West”. The bead is pierced from top to bottom and the jade displays a fascinating mixture of colours that range from light to dark green, brown, beige and white.
Some Han period gang mao decorated with inscriptions are in the Palace Museum, Beijing: see Zhou Nanquan, Gugong bowuyuan zang wenwu zhenpin quanji - Yuqi (shang) 故宮博物院藏文物 珍品全集 ．玉器上 (The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Jadeware I), Hong Kong 1995, nos.191-192. An Eastern Han ornament decorated with the same patterns is illustrated in J.P. Desroches (ed.), Two Americans in Paris. A Quest for Asian Art, Paris 2016, no.192.

HEIGHT 4.2 CM – WIDTH 2 CM 高 4.2 厘米 - 寬 2 厘米

From an Austrian collection

All jades in this catalogue have been professionally examined, authenticated and described by Prof. Filippo Salviati. Professor Salviati teaches Chinese and Korean art at Sapienza University in Rome, in the Italian Institute of Oriental Studies. He is a world expert on archaic Chinese jades, having released multiple publications and being cited by renowned auction houses such as Sotheby’s. The microscopic images made available here, show that the weathering of the jade has occurred over a long period of time. Furthermore in the magnification one can reconstruct the workings of the jade. The two aforementioned criteria are exactly what counts in the authentication of archaic jades – the difficult and elaborate workmanship by hand and the subsequent weathering of the jade over centuries. The microscopic enlargements show how the patterns were ground out in many small steps, sometimes over months, and that the weathering actually occurs above the carvings, meaning it occurred after the jade was completed.