A PALE CELADON JADE ‘BIRD’ CIRCULAR PENDANT, WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY
China, 10th-9th century BC. Well carved to both sides with single and double groove lines to depict a bird with a hooked beak, coiled around the central aperture. The translucent stone is of a pale celadon tone with cloudy inclusions, dark specks, and areas of white calcification.


Provenance:
Collection of Harry Geoffrey Beasley (1881-1939) and thence by descent to his widow Irene Beasley. Collection of Alfred William Cowperthwaite (1890-1964), acquired from the above c. 1939 and thence by descent in the same family. Harry Geoffrey Beasley (1881-1939) was a British anthropologist and museum curator who developed an important ethnographic collection during the early 20th century that is now held in various British museums. With his wife Irene, Beasley set up the Cranmore Ethnographical Museum which eventually held more than 6,000 objects of ethnographical interest. The Beasleys collected objects from across Europe, buying from auction houses and local museums to expand the collection, which contained material from the Pacific, Asia, Africa, and Northwestern America. Beasley wrote numerous articles for anthropological journals and was considered an expert in his field. He died in 1939 and his collection was stored with the British Museum collections during the war, which was fortunate, as the Cranmore Museum was destroyed by bombing. After the war, substantial portions of the collection were passed to the British Museum, the Royal Museum in Edinburgh, the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the University of Cambridge, the Pitt Rivers Museum, and the Merseyside County Museum. Other pieces, such as the present lot, were sold by his widow and, after her death in 1974, by their daughters. Alfred William Cowperthwaite (1890-1964) was a contributor to the Cranmore Museum and became good friends with Harry Beasley. Shortly after Harry Beasley’s death, he acquired a number of objects from Irene Beasley, including the present lot.

Condition:
Very good condition with expected old wear, minuscule nibbling, remnants of soil.

Weight: 13.6 g
Dimensions: Diameter 4.8 cm


A Confucian text likely dating to the Western Han period
, the Zhou Li, or Rites of Zhou, states that the six ritual jades, or Liu Yu Liu Rue, comprise the bi, cong, gui, zhang, hu, and huang, among which the bi disk and the cong tube were by far the most important and the most long-lived. The bi, a circular disk with a circular perforation in the center, was said to symbolize the sun and to have been used in ceremonies paying homage to the sun. As a parallel, the cong - an implement square in section, open at both ends, and with a cylindrical passageway connecting the two ends - was believed to represent the earth and to have been used in ceremonies honoring the earth. Alas, the exact meaning and function of the bi and cong remain unknown, as those ritual implements originated in Neolithic times, more than 2,000 years before the Zhou Li was written. Thus, in all probability, that text merely states the conventional wisdom held at the time of its writing, which may or may not have anything to do with the implements’ original use and significance or their evolution over the millennia.


The earliest bi disks
, which date to the Neolithic period, are undecorated, and were crafted in a variety of colored hardstones. They tend to be large, relatively thick, and sometimes slightly irregular in shape. Occasionally slightly off-center, the central perforation was typically worked from both sides, with the result being that a low ridge often encircles the middle of the perforation, indicating the point where the tools met. By the Shang dynasty, bi disks, though still undecorated but with the perforation perfectly centered, were very regular in form, usually crafted in sea-green or bluish-green nephrite, and generally thinner than earlier examples. In the late Eastern Zhou, most bi disks were finished with a subtly raised border around the periphery and another around the central perforation; in addition, the surface of the usually pale greenish white stone, sometimes enlivened with a splash of brown, was typically ornamented with an array of small, spiral, or comma-shaped embellishments that are regularly spaced and rise in low relief, known as guwen or guliwen, meaning ‘grain patterns.’ (For a short essay on the emergence, development, and decline of the late Eastern Zhou relief embellishment, see Marcel Loehr, 'Ancient Chinese Jades from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection in the Fogg Art Museum', Cambridge, 1975, pp. 21-28.)


Literature comparison:

Compare a closely related jade pendant disk, also dated to the Western Zhou dynasty, 10th-9th century BC, in the Art Institute of Chicago, reference number 1950.561. Compare a related jade pendant in the form of a disk with dragons and bird, also dated to the Western Zhou dynasty, ca. 950-850 BC, 5.2 cm diameter, in the National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, accession number S1987.628.


Auction result comparison:

Type: Closely related
Auction: Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 November 2020, lot 2760
Price: HKD 250,000 or approx.
EUR 32,500,
converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A yellowish-green and russet jade ‘bird’ circular pendant, Western Zhou dynasty
Expert remark: Note the closely related form, decoration, and size (5 cm).




西周青白玉鳥紋配飾

中國，公元前十至九世紀。雙面雕刻精美，單槽和雙槽線雕刻鳥紋，鉤狀喙在中央圓孔處。半透明玉料呈淺青色，帶有內沁、深色斑點和白色鈣化區域。


來源：
Harry Geoffrey Beasley (1881-1939)收藏，他逝世後由其遺孀Irene Beasley保存；Alfred William Cowperthwaite (1890-1964) 收藏，約於1939年購於上述收藏，之後在同一家族保存至今。Harry Geoffrey Beasley (1881-1939) 是一位英國人類學家和博物館館長，他在二十世紀初建立了一個重要的民族志收藏，現在收藏在英國的各個博物館中。Beasley和他的妻子Irene一起建立了Cranmore民族志博物館，該博物館最終收藏了 6,000 多件民族志方面的物品。Beasley 收集了來自歐洲各地的物品，從拍賣行和當地博物館購買以擴大收藏範圍，其中包含來自太平洋、亞洲、非洲和美國西北部的資料。Beasley為人類學期刊撰寫了大量文章，被公認爲是該領域的專家。他於 1939 年去世，他的藏品幸虧在戰爭期間被存放在大英博物館裏，而Cranmore博物館被轟炸摧毀。戰後，大部分藏品被轉移到大英博物館、愛丁堡皇家博物館、劍橋大學考古與人類學博物館、Pitt Rivers博物館和Merseyside County博物館。其他收藏，例如現在的拍品，由他的遺孀出售，在她 1974 年去世後，由他們的女兒出售。Alfred William Cowperthwaite (1890-1964) 曾是Cranmore 民族志博物館重要支持人，也曾是 Harry Beasley的好友。在Harry Beasley去世不久，他從Irene Beasley 處購買了一些收藏，包括此件拍品。

品相：
狀況極好，有磨損、微小的磕損、土壤餘留。

重量：13.6 克
尺寸：直徑 4.8 厘米

最早的璧可以追溯到新石器時代，素面沒有任何裝飾，以各種彩石製成的。它們往往較大，相對較厚，有時形狀略微不規則。 中央穿孔偶爾會稍微偏離中心。到了商代，璧雖然仍然素面，但孔眼完美居中，形狀非常規則，通常用海綠色或藍綠色軟玉製成，比之前更薄。東周晚期，大多數璧在外圍有微凸的邊緣，在中央穿孔周圍有另一個邊緣，通常白色玉料表面呈現淺綠色，有時會有一點點棕色，顯得更為生動，並裝飾有一系列雲紋或穀紋，有規律，呈淺浮雕狀。（有關東周晚期浮雕裝飾的出現、發展和衰落的文章，請參閱 Marcel Loehr，Fogg Art Museum福格藝術博物館 Grenville L. Winthrop 收藏的中國古代玉器 ，劍橋，1975 年，第 21-28 頁。）


文獻比較：

比較一件非常相近的西元前十至九世紀西周玉碟， 收藏於芝加哥藝術博物館，編號 1950. 561。比較一件相近的約西元前950-850年西周龍鳥紋玉碟 ，直徑5.2 厘米，收藏於史密森尼學會亞瑟·M·賽克勒美術館，收藏編號S1987.628。


拍賣結果比較：

形制：非常相近
拍賣：香港佳士，2020年11月30日，lot 2760
價格：HKD 250,000（相當於今日
EUR 32,500
）
描述： 西周鳥紋圓形珮
專家評論：請注意非常相近的外形、裝飾和尺寸(5厘米)。