Finial in the form of a bird

• 1. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, July 1, 2008) Jewelry added as secondary classification.
   
  2. (Susan Kitsoulis per Keith Wilson, June 15, 2010) Title changed from "Pendant (Pei 珮): bird" to "Pendant in the form of a bird"; Object name from "Pendant: bird" to "Jewelry."

  3. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, July 31, 2017) Title changed from "Pendant (pei) in the form of a bird" to "Fitting in the form of a bird"; period changed from "Western Zhou dynasty" to "Late Shang dynasty"; period two added "Anyang period"; geography changed from "China" to "China, probably Henan province, Anyang"; date changed from "11th-10th century BCE" to "ca. 1300- ca. 1050 BCE"; medium changed from "jade" to "jade (nephrite)".

  4. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, July 24, 2018) Title changed from "Fitting in the form of a bird" to "Finial in the form of a bird"; added Chinese translation; added the following Description "Each side of the jade pendant is decorated with details of a crested bird rendered in double outlines and sloping cuts. Small circular perforations appear on the crest and in the projection below the bird's foot. (Some calcification.)"; added past label text; and added unpublished research by Jenny F. So.

  5. (YinYing Chen per Keith Wilson, February 21, 2023)
  Change date from "ca. 1300-ca. 1050 BCE" to "ca. 1250-ca. 1050 BCE."
  Change date from "公元前1300-1050年" to "公元前1250-1050年" in the translation field.
  Change medium from "Jade (nephrite)" to "Jade (nephrite) imported from the northeast."
  
  

Draft catalogue entry for S1987.640; by Jenny F. So (2003)
Bird-shaped fitting or finial
Shang 商 period, 1300--1200 BCE
Anyang 安陽
Nephrite, translucent yellowish-green
Height 10.13 cm; maximum width 3.82 cm; 0.42--0.55 cm thick
Gift of Arthur M. Sackler
S1987.640

An arc-shaped jade is worked into a large bird with a tall, crenellated crest. The crest occupies almost one-third the length of the arc. The head, wings, and single-clawed leg of the bird fill the remaining two-thirds. The bird's head shows a distinct hooked beak, marked by "V"s, and a large eye with shaped inner and outer canthus. A large wing suggested by spirals fills its robust breast, as a thick leg ending in claws and suggestion of tail feathers issue below.

All spiral and other designs on the crest, body, and leg are executed as closely packed double intaglio lines. The intervening areas left standing appear as shallow, low relief--or pseudo-relief--lines, although the actual method of execution was by incision. Both sides are decorated in the same way. A blunt tang pierced by a large hole extends from beneath the claw. The tang was meant to be inserted into some sort of shaft or handle and secured at the hole so that only the bird would be visible. Two more holes pierce the bird: one at the tail feathers and one the topmost point of the crest. Additional free-flowing decoration might have been attached to these holes.
 
There are several examples of this type in the collection (see S1987.841 and S1987.532). All display a consistency in form, decoration, and function since they seem to have been meant for insertion through a pierced tang at the claw. A Neolithic prototype for these curved pieces of jade inserted and secured at the bottom is the jade recovered from M77, a Liangzhu 良渚 period burial at Zhaolingshan 昭陵山. This unusual specimen shows in simple silhouette a bird with long tail feathers standing on a human figure in a crouching position. The figure lifts an animal on his raised arm, which seems to nibble at the bird's belly. The combination of bird-man-animal on the Zhaolingshan 昭陵山 jade expresses a mysterious supernatural relationship among them. By association, similar arc-shaped fittings at Anyang 安陽 have been regarded as religious insignia based on the importance of the bird in ancient Neolithic beliefs. [1]

However, another possible interpretation for these bird-shaped fittings may be found in the legendary origin of the Shang 商 people that centered on the cult of the black bird. [2] It is possible that the large number of bird-shaped finials recovered from Fu Hao's 婦好 tomb at Anyang 安陽 is a sign of her royal status--a political indicator--distinct from the crested human finial that is clearly more mysterious and complex in form and content. The grandeur of some of these bird-shaped finials clearly makes them superb power symbols, a magnificent example being a large bird with crenellated crest in the Norton collection in West Palm Beach, Florida.

[1] See Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan kaogu yanjiusuo 中國社會科學院考古研究所, Yinxu Fu Hao mu 殷墟婦好墓 (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1980), pls. 142--43. For the bird in eastern Neolithic cultures, see Wu Hung, "Bird Motifs in Eastern Yi Art," Orientations 16, no. 10 (1985), pp. 30--41. The Anyang 安陽 examples and the possible meaning of these finials are also discussed in Jessica Rawson, Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing (London: British Museum Press, 1995), p. 218, fig. 12:14.

[2] Wu Hung 巫鴻, "Yizu zaoqi de yushi diaoke一組早期的玉石雕刻," Meishu yanjiui 美術研究 1979.1, p. 67.

• J. Keith Wilson, Jingmin Zhang. Jades for Life and Death. .