Object: Pendant in the form of a tiger S2012.9.384

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: Bone

Dimension(s): H x W x D: 8.2 × 2.5 × 0.9 cm (3 1/4 × 1 × 3/8 in)

Origin: China, probably Henan province, Anyang

Credit Line: The Dr. Paul Singer Collection of Chinese Art of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; a joint gift of the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, Paul Singer, the AMS Foundation for the Arts, Sciences, and Humanities, and the Children of Arthur M. Sackler

Collection: Arthur M. Sackler Collection

Accession Number: S2012.9.384

: 虎形飾
晚商安陽時期（公元前1250-1050年）
中國，疑似河南安陽市
骨
高2.2、寬6.2、厚0.7釐米
史密森博物學院亞瑟·M·賽克勒美術館保羅·辛格中國藝術收藏品；亞瑟·M·賽克勒基金會，保羅·辛格，AMS基金會，及亞瑟·M·賽克勒子女聯合贈送
器物編號：S2012.9.384

Past label text: 1. (Keith Wilson, Anyang: China's Ancient City of Kings, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, February 25, 2023 to April 28, 2024)

Pendant in the form of a tiger
Anyang period, ca. 1250–1050 BCE

Bone

The Dr. Paul Singer Collection of Chinese Art of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; a joint gift of the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, Paul Singer, the AMS Foundation for the Arts, Sciences, and Humanities, and the Children of Arthur M. Sackler S2012.9.384

The Royal Hunt
These late Anyang-period wine containers with matching
inscriptions name an “Officer of the Hounds” in charge of one of
the king’s hunting grounds and may have been commissioned
and used by the same individual. Oracle bone inscriptions tell
us these officers were responsible for assisting with the king’s
hunts. Royal hunts involved chariots but not always successfully.
One famous divination recounts the toppling of the king’s chariot by another officer during the pursuit of wild buffalo. Along with
other unsurprising quarry like deer and boar, the king’s hunt also
sometimes included elephants and tigers. The hunt probably
involved bow and arrow—in Shang writing, there are depictions
of tigers with arrows in their heads—and perhaps this mysterious
pointed weapon or tool with a hook; maybe part of a whip, it is
sometimes found with chariotry equipment in elite tombs.

Curatorial Remarks

1. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, May 3, 2018) Title changed from "Knife with handle in the form of a tiger" to "Pendant in the form of a tiger"; object name changed from "knife" to "pendant"; period two changed from "early Anyang period"; to "Anyang period"; date changed from "ca. 1300-1200 BCE" to "ca. 1300-ca. 1050 BCE"; measurement changed to "HxWxD: 2.2x6.2x0.7cm (7/8x2 7/16x1/4 in); added Chinese object caption by Jingmin Zhang; and added unpublished research by Louisa Fitzgerald-Huber.

2. (Najiba Choudhury, May 24, 2018) According to Cox, Warren, Chinese Ivory Sculpture, (1946) this pendant has a provenance of "C. T. Loo & Co. Warren E. Cox Galleries".
3. (YinYing Chen per Keith Wilson, February 17, 2023)
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 (no. 164) for S2012.9.384 for the catalogue of the Singer collection (1970--1990); by Louisa Fitzgerald Huber
Tiger
Shang 商 dynasty, 13th century BCE
Bone
Length 8 cm (3 1/8 in)

This vigorously carved tiger is portrayed with oversized head and paws. Double, crescent shaped nicks along the body represent the tiger's stripes. Jutting out horizontally from underneath the tail is a tapering section marked by a network of crossing diagonal lines. Three perforations drilled through the mouth and the two paws are equidistant from each other and form an almost straight row. The tiger compares fairly closely in style with the figure of a scaly anteater on the handle of a graver found in Tomb 5 at Xiaotun 小屯. [1]

Published: Warren E. Cox, Chinese Ivory Sculpture (New York: Crown Publishers, 1946), pl. 6 bottom; China Institute in America, Art Styles of Ancient Shang, from Private and Museum Collections (New York: China Institute, 1967), cat. 65.

[1] 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), color pl. 38: 3 left.

Published References

Warren E. Cox. Chinese Ivory Sculpture. New York, 1946. .
J. Keith Wilson, Jingmin Zhang. Jades for Life and Death. .

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Pendant in the form of a tiger

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