Ornaments with geometric decoration, set of four

• 1. (Jeffrey Smith per Matthew Clarke, June 16, 2022) Medium changed from jade and bronze to jade (nephrite).

  2. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, April 10, 2023) Name changed from "Group of four jade fittings or attachments from a bronze object" to "Ornaments with geometric decoration, set of four"; Period Two "Warring States period" and "Period One is "Eastern Zhou dynasty or Western Han dynasty"; Date changed from "3rd-2nd century BCE" to "475 BCE-9 CE"; added Chinese caption and Unpublished Research.
  

Draft catalogue entry (no. 361) for S2012.9.1471 and S2012.9.1383.1-4 for the catalogue of the Singer collection (1970--90); by Louisa Fitzgerald Huber
Four T shaped Plaques and One Animal Head Plaquette
Eastern Zhou 周--Western Han 漢 dynasty, 3rd--2nd century BCE
Jade and glass
Length: each plaque, 6.3 cm (2 1/2 in); plaquette, 3.2 cm (1 1/4 in)

Each thin, highly polished T shaped plaque with slightly canted edges displays an open, evenly spaced,  bilaterally symmetrical pattern of interconnected units executed in finely incised paired lines. Two bracket shapes  with curled tips framing opposite sides of the widest section are accented at the center by a tiny crosshatched  curved triangle, with the result that the undecorated area within the brackets takes on the semblance of four  petals, with a crosshatched star placed at the center. A pair of lines extending downward back-to-back from the  wider to the narrower section is bridged by a short, striated bar, while striated bands along the outer edge link  these lines with a curved, transverse bracket somewhat farther along. The design is completed by a single floret  with a crosshatched umbel stemming from the margin of the narrow end of the plaque.

To the back of each plaque is affixed a glass plate of matching size and shape but of somewhat greater  thickness. Two plaques are of a grayish jade with white clouds and with opaque brown areas near their edges. The remaining plaques each comprise two separate pieces of olive-green jade. Because traces of verdigris adhere to the glass backings and because the jade plaques themselves show spots of bright green discoloration,  it can be surmised that the pieces were originally mounted in bronze or gilt bronze settings.

The fifth plaque, smaller than the rest and showing a simple animal face on its shield shaped surface, is of the  same grayish jade as two of the larger plaques. Even though its decor differs from the other plaques, and although it has no glass backing, it is considered to belong to the same set as the other four.

While it is unclear what function these plaques may have served, the fact that four are provided with glass  backings suggests that they were intended to be mounted in such a way that light could pass through them.