Object: Finial in the form of a dragon and bird in combat S1987.518

Classification: Jewelry and Ornament

Historical period(s): Anyang period, Late Shang dynasty, ca. 1250-ca. 1050 BCE

Object Date: ca. 1250-ca. 1050 BCE

Medium: Jade (nephrite)

Dimension(s): H x W x D: 7.8 × 4.1 × 0.4 cm (3 1/16 × 1 5/8 × 3/16 in)

Origin: China, probably Henan province, Anyang

Credit Line: Gift of Arthur M. Sackler

Collection: Arthur M. Sackler Collection

Accession Number: S1987.518

龍鳥形飾
晚商安陽時期（公元前1250-1050年）
中國，疑似河南安陽市
軟玉
高7.8、寬4.1、厚0.4釐米
亞瑟·M·賽克勒贈送
器物編號: S1987.518

Provenance: To 1959
Abel William Bahr (1877-1959), Shanghai, China, London, England, Montreal, Canada, New York, NY, and Ridgefield, Connecticut [1]

From 1959 to 1963
Edna H. Bahr (d. 1978), by descent from her father, Abel William Bahr

From 1963 to 1987
Arthur M. Sackler, New York, purchased from Edna H. Bahr in 1963 [2]

From 1987
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, gift of Dr. Arthur M. Sackler on September 11, 1987 [3]

Notes:

[1] According to information provided by the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, October 9, 2009.

[2] See #352: "Bird and Kuei Green mottled," on list provided by the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, October 9, 2009, copy in object file.

[3] Pursuant to the agreement between Dr. Arthur M. Sackler and the Smithsonian Institution, dated July 28, 1982, legal title of the donated objects was transferred to the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery on September 11, 1987.

Previous owner(s): Abel William Bahr (1877-1959)
Edna H. Bahr (1907-1986)
Dr. Arthur M. Sackler (1913-1987)

Description: Jade pendant depicting a single-horned, open-mouthed dragon and a bird. Both the dragon and the bird are presented in profile, superimposed one atop the other, so that the dragon might be read as an appendage of the bird. The flat surfaces of the pendant are embellished with designs in raised lines. (Flaw pits around edges; spots of calcification; deposits, cinnabar.)

Past label text: 1. In Praise of Ancestors, September 28, 1987–January 5, 1989; by Thomas Lawton (shown with S1987.640, S1987.519, S1987.841, and S1987.532; additional Neolithic finials and Western Zhou 周 fittings shown in same case)

Pendant (Pei 珮)
ca. 1200 BCE
Shang 商 dynasty
China
Jade

2. Ancient Chinese Jades and Bronzes, October 1, 1989–September 10, 1990; by Thomas Lawton

Dragon and Bird Pendant (Long Niao Pei 龍鳥佩)
Shang 商 dynasty, ca. 1200 BCE
China
Jade

Treasured Possessions
Richly furnished Anyang tombs contained an array of luxuries, including jewelry and small personal objects—their number and type helping to indicate the status and interests of the deceased. Crafted from a variety of valued materials, these precious ornaments for the afterlife also offer insights into the fashion of the living. Carved bone hairpins and jade (nephrite) pendants and fittings were often inspired by the natural world; the depictions on their surfaces range from lifelike to abstract. Most remarkable are designs inspired by the supernatural (including combat between a dragon and bird) and ancient objects. The circular dragon pendant is based on a Neolithic prototype predating Anyang by two thousand years.

3. (Keith Wilson, Anyang: China's Ancient City of Kings, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, February 25, 2023 to April 28, 2024)

Ritual wine cup (gu) with dragons
Inscribed in the foot, Ya Shu 亞叔 (“Deputy, Younger brother”)
Early Anyang period, ca. 1250–1200 BCE
Bronze
Gift of Arthur M. Sackler S1987.312

Ritual wine cup (gu) with dragons
Inscribed in the foot, Bao 保 (Official title composed of an adult cradling a small child, meaning “Guardian”; responsible for the training and education of young princes)
Early Anyang period, ca. 1200 BCE
Bronze
Gift of Arthur M. Sackler S1987.272

Ritual wine cup (gu) with masks (taotie), dragons, and snakes
Inscribed in the foot, Xi 徒 (Undeciphered title composed of a road intersection next
to striding feet)
Middle Anyang period, ca. 1150–1100 BCE
Bronze
Purchase—Charles Lang Freer Endowment F1951.18

Ritual wine cup (gu) with masks (taotie), snakes, and cicadas
Inscribed in the foot, Dun De 盾得 (Official title composed of a shield and a hand holding a cowrie shell next to a road intersection, possibly meaning “Elite Guard, Treasury Officer”)
Middle Anyang period, ca. 1150 BCE
Bronze
Purchase—Charles Lang Freer Endowment F1940.3

Design Over Time
These four gu, spanning at least one century, show that designs based on imaginary animals remained popular throughout the Anyang period, but subtle
differences in vessel shape and surface treatment reveal changes over time. As vessels grew taller, decoration expanded to cover increasing surface area. The extension of four projecting ribs from the foot to the rim, sectioned according to registers of decoration, called greater attention to the organization of surface ornament and dramatized the object’s silhouette. The use of relief, with components of the animal motifs raised above a background of fine spirals, made the designs easier to read.

Curatorial Remarks

1. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Traditional Chinese texts describe the remarkably large number of jades with which the last ruler of the Shang 商 dynasty is supposed to have surrounded himself before committing suicide. There is also mention of the vast quantities of Shang 商 jades seized by the Zhou 周 leader, King Wu 武王, after his conquest of the Shang 商. Some substantiation of those extraordinary numbers of jade is given by the contents of the royal Tomb 5 at Anyang 安陽, in Henan 河南 province, excavated in 1976. That one royal tomb, which is believed to have held the remains of a consort of Wuding 武丁, one of the last Shang 商 rulers, yielded more than 750 pieces of jade. Many of those jades were dragon pendants, similar to this one in the Sackler collection.

2. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, July 1, 2008) Jewelry added as secondary classification.

3. (Susan Kitsoulis per Keith Wilson, July 10, 2010) Object name changed from "Pendant: dragon" to "Jewelry"; Title changed from "Pendant (pei 珮): dragon" to "Pendant (pei 珮) in the form of a dragon."

4. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, August 1, 2017) Title changed from "Pendant (pei) in the form of a dragon" to "Fitting in the form of a bird with dragon"; period one changed from "Shang dynasty" to "Late Shang dynasty"; period two added "Anyang period"; geography changed from "China, Henan province, Anyang" to "China, probably Henan province, Anyang"; date changed from "ca. 1200 BCE" to "ca. 1300-ca. 1050 BCE"; medium changed from "Jade" to "Jade (nephrite)".

5. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, July 25, 2018) Title changed from "Fitting in the form of a bird with dragon" to "Finial in the form of a bird with dragon"; added Chinese translation by Jingmin; added past label texts, and unpublished research by Jenny F. So.
6. (YinYing Chen per Keith Wilson, February 15, 2023)
Change title from "Finial in the form of a bird with dragon" to "Finial in the form of a dragon and bird in combat."
Change date from "ca. 1300-ca. 1050 BCE" to "ca. 1250-1050 BCE."
Change date from "公元前1300-1050年" to "公元前1250-1050年" in the translation field.

Unpublished Research: Draft catalogue entry for S1987.518; by Jenny F. So (2003)

Bird-shaped fitting or finial
Late Shang 商 or early Western Zhou 西周 period, 1100--1000 BCE
Height 7.71 cm; width 3.99 cm; 0.27--0.45 cm thick
Former A. W. Bahr collection
Gift of Arthur M. Sackler
S1987.518

Here, the feline-dragon and the bird are almost the same size. As in the previous example (S1987.519), the bird is bald. What was once a fancy crest (see S1987.841) is now replaced by a large dragon with [a] bottle-shaped horn and a long curled tail, its mouth wide open as if devouring the bird below. The bird appears to be a different species from those in the foregoing examples (S1987.640, S1987.841, S1987.532, and S1987.519). It has the beak of a small bird instead of the pronounced hooked beaks of the others. Its eye is a large circle, and a single large spiral describes its wing. All details are executed in pseudo-relief. The tang thins significantly below the claw for insertion. It might have once been longer as it now stops abruptly along a straight edge, the result of reworking of damage.

Published: Alfred Salmony, Carved Jade of Ancient China (Berkeley: Gillick Press, 1938), pl. XVI:4; Na Zhiliang 那志良, Yuqi tongshi II 玉器通释下册 (Hong Kong: Kaifa gufen youxian gongsi, 1974), p. 184, fig. 88:c.

Published References

et al. Asian Art in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery: The Inaugural Gift. Washington, 1987. cat. 49, p. 93.
J. Keith Wilson, Jingmin Zhang. Jades for Life and Death. .

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Finial in the form of a dragon and bird in combat

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