Ornament in the form of a dragon with raised uniform curls

1. Bought from Seaouke Yue [You Xiaoxi] 游筱溪, of Shanghai 上海, in New York, NY. For price, see Original Miscellaneous List, p. 298.

2. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Original attribution: Chinese. Shang 商. See further, S.I. 11312, Appendix VIII. Excavated from Shensi [Shaanxi] 陝西 province.

3. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Sp. G. is 2.973. Nephrite.

4. (Archibald Gibson Wenley, 1945) Chou [Zhou] 周 dynasty. A crudely executed piece.

5. (William B. Trousdale, 1964) Han 漢 dynasty. Western Han 漢. Rather crude work based on late Chou [Zhou] 周 design.

6. (Thomas Lawton, 1974) Late Eastern Chou [Zhou] 周. The rough material and crude carving technique are characteristic of a  number of pieces unearthed during recent years in the People's Republic of China. Those examples have all  been found in a Ch'u [Chu] 楚 context, which provides a Late Eastern Chou [Zhou] 周 date and suggests that the crudeness of  execution and roughness of design are characteristic of Ch'u [Chu] 楚 taste. Other related examples in the Freer collection are F1916.758, F1916.514, and F1917.376.

See Kuo Te-wei [Guo Dewei] 郭德維 and Liu Pin-wei [Liu Binhui] 劉彬徽, "Hu pei sheng Chiang ling ch'u t'u hu tso niao chia-ku liang-tso Ch'u mu te ch'ing li chien pao [Hubei sheng Jiangling chutu Huzuo niaojiagu liangzuo Chumu de qingli jianbao] 湖北省江陵出土虎座鳥架鼓兩座楚墓的清理簡報,"  Wen wu [Wenwu] 文物 1964. 9, pp. 27--32; Hu-nan-sheng po-wu-kuan [Hunan sheng bowuguan] 湖南省博物館, "Hu nan Ch'ang te Te shan Chan kuo mu ts'ang [Hunan Changde Deshan Zhanguo muzang] 湖南常德德山戰國墓葬," K'ao-ku [Kaogu] 考古 1959. 12,  pp. 658--61; and Hu-pei-sheng wen-wu-chü wen-wu kung-tso-tui [Hubei sheng wenwuju wenwu gongzuodui] 湖北省文物局文物工作隊, "Hu pei Chiang ling san tso Ch'u mu ch'u t'u ta p'i chung yao wen wu [Hubei Jiangling sanzu Chumu chutu dapi zhongyao wenwu] 湖北江陵三座楚墓出土大批重要文物," Wen wu [Wenwu] 文物 1966. 5, pp. 33--55. (The Chinese Exhibition: A Pictorial Record of the Exhibition of Archaeological Finds of the People's Republic of China (Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1974), nos. 125--26).

7. (Hin-cheung Lovell, 1978) The Ch'ang sha [Changsha] 長沙 provenance is an assumption rather than a proven fact. Hitherto, the two  known centers of jade carving were Loyang [Luoyang] 洛陽 and Shou chou [Shou xian] 壽縣. The latter fell within the State of Ch'u [Chu] 楚, which covered  a large area extending over several provinces. It seems reasonable to assume that there were more than one  center of jade carving within the State of Ch'u [Chu] 楚. Further, it seems reasonable to assume that Ch'ang sha [Changsha] 長沙 was one  such center, since it was an important city and an important center of lacquer manufacture in the Warring States  period. The style of F1917.372, F1916.514, F1916.758, F1917.376, and F1919.24 is decidedly different from that of the jades  purportedly from Shou chou [Shou xian] 壽縣. The finds cited in Paragraph 6 above were unearthed from Chiang ling [Jiangling] 江陵 in southern  Hupei [Hubei] 湖北 and from Ch'ang te [Changde] 常德 in northern Hunan 湖南 province, about 150 and 100 miles respectively from Ch'ang sha [Changsha] 長沙.  The Ch'ang sha [Changsha] 長沙 provenance is therefore proposed tentatively, pending confirmation or otherwise by further
 evidence.

8. (Thomas Lawton, Chinese Art of the Warring States Period: Change and Community, 480--222 B.C. [Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1982], cat. no. 101) The thin, dark green nephrite plaque is remarkable for its large size. In contrast to the other dragon plaques in the catalogue, the silhouette of the piece is less taut, and the two pendant forms suggest legs that counterbalance the curve of the head and tail. Incised lines define, in the most  casual manner, the textures of mane and tail; incised spirals ornament the body of the dragon. A small perforation  in the back of the piece probably provided the means for attaching it to another surface, the larger perforations at  the mouth and curling projections may have also served the same purpose.

Although the plaque traditionally was said to have been found in Shensi [Shaanxi] 陝西 province and date from the Shang 商  dynasty, it is closely related to jades that have been unearthed in ancient Ch'u [Chu] 楚 territory. [1]

[1] See Jan Fontein and Wu Tung, Unearthing China's Past (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts; distributed by New York Graphic Society, Greenwich, Connecticut, 1973), p. 86; Hu-nan-sheng po-wu-kuan [Hunan sheng bowuguan] 湖南省博物館, "Hu nan Ch'ang te Te shan Chan kuo mu ts'ang [Hunan Changde Deshan Zhanguo muzang] 湖南常德德山戰國墓葬," K'ao-ku [Kaogu] 考古 1959. 12, p. 660, fig. 5; Kuo Te-wei [Guo Dewei] 郭德維 and Liu Pin-wei [Liu Binhui] 劉彬徽, "Hu pei sheng Chiang ling ch'u t'u hu tso niao chia-ku liang-tso Ch'u mu te ch'ing li chien pao [Hubei sheng Jiangling chutu Huzuo niaojiagu liangzuo Chumu de qingli jianbao] 湖北省江陵出土虎座鳥架鼓兩座楚墓的清理簡報,"  Wen wu [Wenwu] 文物 1964. 9, p. 29, fig. 5:5; Ch'u wen-wu chan-lan-hui [Chuwenwu zhanlanhui] 楚文物展覽會, Ch'u wen-wu chan-lan t'u-lu [Chuwenwu zhanlan tulu] 楚文物展覽圖錄 (Beijing: Beijing lishi bowuguan, 1954), pl. 28:54--55.

9. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, August 22, 2008) "Jewelry" and "Ornament" added as secondary classification.

10. (Jeffrey Smith per Matthew Clarke, July 8, 2022) Medium changed from "Jade" to "Jade (nephrite)."

11. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, March 30, 2023) Title changed from "Ornamental plaque" to "Ornament in the form of a dragon with raised uniform curls"; Period Two added as "Warring States period"; Date changed from "3rd century BCE" to "475-221 BCE"; Geography changed from "China, Hunan province, Changsha" to "China, probably Hunan province, Changsha, kingdom of Chu, but purportedly found at Shaanxi province"; and added Chinese caption by Jingmin Zhang.