1. From original Folder Sheet note: Late Eastern Chou [Zhou] 周.
Bought from C. T. Loo, New York, NY. For price, see Freer Gallery of Art Purchase List After 1920.
2. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Original attribution: Han 漢.
3. (Archibald Gibson Wenley, 1943) Late Chou [Zhou] 周 dynasty.
4. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Sp. G. is 2.962. Nephrite. Partial decomposition and earth incrustations prevent a higher reading for this.
5. (Julia Murray, 1980) Attribution changed from "Late Chou [Zhou ] 周" to "Late Eastern Chou [Zhou] 周, Warring States Period." Exhibition Ancient Chinese Jade label text; moved to label field.
6. (Thomas Lawton, Chinese Art of the Warring States Period: Change and Continuity, 480-222 B.C. [Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1982], cat. no. 80) Thicker than the other feline ornaments in the collection, this example equals them in the dramatic contrast of curvilinear forms. Only the head and legs of the feline retain features that can be associated with the animal world, and those are subordinated to a series of broad curls, particularly in the long, pointed tail, that reflects the artist's preoccupation with abstract design. Incised lines, which provide accents on the highly polished light tan surface, are not identical on both sides of the piece. A perforation through the leaf shaped projection on the feline's head would have enabled the piece to be suspended. [1]
Comparison of the Freer pendant with a piece in the Fogg Museum supports a common provenance. [2] The Fogg pendant is illustrated by William Charles White and by Umehara Sueji 梅原末治, and on that basis, the Freer ornament can tentatively be associated with the jade pieces said to have been found at Chin ts'un [Jincun] 金村 near Loyang [Luoyang] 洛陽, Honan [Henan] 河南 province. [3]
Another related jade pendant has been published by Na Chih liang [Na Zhiliang] 那志良. [4]
[1] For discussion of the Freer jade, see Alfred Salmony, Carved Jade of Ancient China (Berkeley, CA: Gillick Press, 1938), pl. 47:3; Umehara Sueji 梅原末治, Shina kogyoku zuroku 支那古玉圖錄 (Kyoto: Kuwana bunseido, 1955), pl. 81:1; Mizuno, Seiichi 水野清一, In Shū seidōki to tama 殷周青銅器と玉 (Tokyo: Nihon Keizai shimbunsha, 1959), pl. 163f.
[2] Max Loehr, Ancient Chinese Jades from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA: Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, 1975), p. 303, no. 443.
[3] William Charles White, Tombs of Old Lo Yang: A Record of the Construction and Contents of a Group of Royal Tombs at Chin ts'un, Probably Dating to 550 B.C. (Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh Limited, 1934), pl. 138:316; Umehara Sueji 梅原末治, Rakuyō Kinson kobo shūei 洛陽金村古墓聚英 (Kyoto: Kobayashi shashin seihanjo shuppanbu, 1937), pl. 86:3.
[4] Na Chih-liang [Na Zhiliang] 那志良, Chinese Jades: Archaic and Modern from the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (Rutland, VT: C. E. Tuttle Co., 1977), pl. 134.
7. (Stephen Allee per Keith Wilson, June 23, 2008) As per Jenny F. So, Jade Project Database, changed Date from "5th-4th century BCE" to "475--221 BCE." Changed Object Name from "Pendant: bird" to "Jewelry"; changed title from "Ornament" to "Pendant in form of a feline dragon." Added designation "nephrite" as per Janet G. Douglas using infrared spectroscopy in March 1996. Added Dimensions per Christine Lee, from Jade Project Database.
8. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, July 1, 2008) "Jewelry" added as secondary classification.
9. (Susan Kitsoulis per Keith Wilson, May 24, 2010) Changed Object Name from "Pendant: feline dragon" to "Jewelry."
10. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, January 4, 2022) Object Name changed from "Jewelry" to "Pendant"; Title changed from "Pendant in form of a feline-dragon" to "Pendant in the form of a dragon"; added past label text by Julia K. Murray, and added Chinese translation.
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