Pendant in the form of two dragons

1. Bought from Yamanaka and Company, New York, NY. For price, see Freer Gallery of Art Purchase List After 1920.

2. (John Ellerton Lodge, 1939) Late Chou [Zhou] 周 dynasty.

3. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Sp. G. is 2.938. Advanced decomposition prevents an accurate calculation.

4. (Elisabeth West Fitzhugh, 1956) X ray diffraction analysis. Nephrite. Film no. F226.

5. (Julia Murray, 1980) Changed "Late Chou [Zhou] 周 dynasty" to "Late Eastern Chou [Zhou] 周, Warring States period" and "Lo yang [Luoyang] 洛陽" to "Chin ts'un [Jincun] 金村."

6. (Thomas Lawton, Chinese Art of the Warring States Period: Change and Continuity, 480-222  B.C. [Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1982], cat. no. 95) Two addorsed dragons, their heads raised and turned inward, constitute the theme of this semicircular, tan openwork jade plaque. At the center of the plaque, undulating dragon bodies are linked above and below by bands of differing widths. The outer contours are notched to coincide with the configurations of the dragon bodies, and the interior is pierced by a series of small, precisely designed apertures. Throughout the complex design, however, the basic semicircular shape of the plaque remains unchanged.

Incised, curvilinear motifs, some further embellished with fine striations and crosshatching, decorate the surface of the plaque. On one side, the surface of the plaque has altered, making the designs less visible. On that same side are two incomplete drill holes. The absence of perforations suggests that the plaque was not used as a pendant. It is possible that it might have been inset into a metal or lacquer support. [1]

Umehara Sueji 梅原末治 includes this jade plaque with other artifacts that he believes are from the tombs at Chin ts'un [Jincun] 金村,  near Loyang [Luoyang] 洛陽, Honan [Henan] 河南 province [2]. Umehara 梅原 also illustrates [3] a small jade plaque now in the Fogg Museum. [4] The design and workmanship of the Freer and Fogg pendants are so closely related as to suggest that the two pieces  might have been made in the same workshop.

[1] The plaque is illustrated in the following studies: Alfred Salmony, Carved Jade of Ancient China (Berkeley, CA: Gillick Press, 1938), pl. 40:4; Umehara Sueji 梅原末治, Sengoku-shiki doki no kenkyu 戰國式銅器の研究 (Kyoto: Dohosha, 1936), pl. 123:3; Mizuno, Seiichi 水野清一, In Shū seidōki to tama 殷周青銅器と玉 (Tokyo: Nihon Keizai shimbunsha, 1959), pl. 163a.

[2] Umehara Sueji 梅原末治, Rakuyō Kinson kobo shūei 洛陽金村古墓聚英 (Kyoto: Kobayashi shashin seihanjo shuppanbu, 1937), pl. LXXXC:1.

[3] Umehara Sueji 梅原末治, Rakuyō Kinson kobo shūei 洛陽金村古墓聚英 (Kyoto: Kobayashi shashin seihanjo shuppanbu, 1937), pl. 85:2.

[4] Max Loehr, Ancient Chinese Jades from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA: Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, 1975), pl. 341, no. 504. An inferior version of the Fogg plaque was included in the Frederick Mayer sale catalogue (New York, 1973), color plate facing p. 308, no. 185. Another version of the same plaque is illustrated in the fifteenth anniversary volume of the Idemitsu Museum (Tokyo), no. 1101.

7. (Stephen Allee per Keith Wilson, June 19, 2008) Deleted "Jincun 金村" from Artist; added "Possibly Jincun 金村, Henan 河南  province" to Geographical Location, Origin. As per Jenny F. So, Jade Project Database, changed Date from "5th-4th  century BCE" to "475--221 BCE." Also changed Object Name from "Pendant: arc openwork" to "Jewelry";  changed Title from "Ornament" to "Pendant in the form of a double dragon." Added Dimensions per Christine Lee,  from Jade Project Database.

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

9. (Susan Kitsoulis per Keith Wilson, May 24, 2010) Changed Object Name from "Pendant: dragon" to "Jewelry."

10. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, January 10, 2022) Object Name changed from "Jewelry" to "Pendant"; Title changed from "Pendant in the form of a double dragon" to "Pendant in the form of two dragons"; and added Chinese translation.