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Expert’s note: This jade figure shows extensive metal encrustations of vibrant green and red color, most likely caused by the corrosion of bronze and iron objects that lay in close proximity to it, likely as part of an elaborate pectoral for a person of high status, like the examples found in the tomb of the Zhao Mo (see Peter Y. K. Lam (ed.), Jades from the Tomb of the King of Nanyue, Guangzhou, 1991, pls. 52). Green malachite is a primary source of the greenish alteration often observed on excavated ancient jade artifacts.
China, Henan province, 3rd century BC. Powerfully carved in the form of a crouching beast with an undulating back defined with crisp edges, the head of the beast depicted with a horn issuing along the contours and ending in an upcurled tip, further rendered with a prominent and broad snout ending in an arc-shaped tip, the muscular body terminating in a furcated tail issuing an angular hooked scroll and decorated with subtle relief on each side with raised bosses, the bent limbs with interconnected scroll, the translucent stone of a deep celadon tone with brown shadings.
Provenance: The Collection of Sam and Myrna Myers, Paris, France. Acquired between circa 1965-2012.
Condition: Good condition with expected wear, traces of weathering and signs of prolonged burial including encrustations of soil and malachite as well as corrosion. The stone with natural fissures, some of which may have developed into thin hairline cracks.
Weight: 360 g
Dimensions: Length 19.6 cm
This finely carved jade plaque belongs to a small and exceptional group of Warring States period animal pendants (475–221 BC), characterized by their dynamic silhouettes, precise detailing, and luminous polish. Though traditionally referred to as "tiger plaques," the present example—along with closely related pairs in the Fogg Art Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Freer Gallery of Art—suggests a more complex interpretation. Each of these pieces varies slightly in proportion, surface pattern, and relief carving, from T-hook and C-scroll motifs to abstract linear ornament, yet all reflect the technical and aesthetic sophistication achieved by late Eastern Zhou jade artisans.
The prominent horn, broad arc-tipped snout, and massive rounded neck and shoulders evoke not the sinuous grace of a dragon or feline dynamism of a tiger, but rather the grounded bulk and physical force of a rhinoceros. As J. Keith Wilson observed, the animal appears “at once tiger-like, rhino-like, and dragon-like” (Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993, p. 127)—a deliberate ambiguity that speaks to the imaginative visual vocabulary of the time. While the term hu (tiger) was commonly used in early texts such as the Zhou li and often retained even when the animal form shifted toward dragons (see Jessica Rawson, Chinese Jade: From the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, p. 261), the present carving seems to reach beyond such classifications.
A similar pendant from the tomb of Zhao Mo, who ruled as King of Nanyue from 137-122 BC during the Western Han dynasty, is illustrated in Peter Y. K. Lam (ed.), Jades from the Tomb of the King of Nanyue, Guangzhou, 1991, pls. 52, 54, and 55, and offers further support for this interpretation. This pendant, of considerably smaller size than the present lot, formed part of the King’s elaborate jade pectoral, shows a similar silhouette, and has been identified as a rhinoceros-shaped huang by Lam (see “Selected Jades from an Imperial Nanyue Tomb”, in Chinese Jade. Selected Articles from Orientations 1983-2003, Hong Kong, 2005, p. 121). Together, these works reflect both the symbolic elasticity and formal inventiveness of early Chinese jade carving.
Literature comparison:
Compare a pair of closely related jade tiger plaques, 19.1 cm long, dated Warring States-Western Han, 3rd century BC in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, object number 1943.50.469. Compare a pair of closely related jade tiger plaques, 22.5 and 20.8 cm long, dated to the Warring States period, in the Cleveland Museum of Art, accession number 1991.78. Compare a pair of closely related jade tiger plaques, 14.7 and 15.1 cm long, dated to the Warring States period, in the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, included in the exhibition Chinese Art of the Warring States Period. Change and Continuity, 480-222 BC, 1982, cat. no. 96.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 3 April 2019, lot 3620
Price: HKD 26,575,000 or approx. EUR 3,210,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: An exceptional and large yellow jade animal-shaped plaque, Eastern Zhou dynasty
Expert remark: Compare the closely related subject and type as well as the related manner of carving and size (22 cm). This exceptional plaque was formerly also in the Myers Collection, kept in the same cabinet as the present lot.
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