China, 3500-2200 BC. The oval body is carved with two folded wings and a short, crescent-shaped tail, while the head features large raised eyes and a short beak. A suspension hole is pierced through the back of the neck. The significant weathering and erosion from its long period of burial have imbued the piece with a heightened spiritual aura, enhancing its ancient and somewhat mysterious appearance.

Provenance: Collection of Dr. Jozef Hanulik, mid-1990s. An Austrian private collection, acquired from the above and thence by descent. Dr. Jozef Hanulik is a noted scientist and adventurer, who became the first person to transverse the Rhine Falls in a kayak in 1976. He grew up in Czechoslovakia until his family fled the Soviet regime for Switzerland in 1969 where he studied chemistry at the University of Zurich. He invented the DECOHA process for the disposal of radioactive waste and spent several months in Chernobyl after the 1986 disaster, where he oversaw the construction and operation of a radioactive decontamination process plant.
Condition: Good condition, commensurate with age. Few nicks, scratches, some nibbling, losses, chips, and signs of weathering and erosion. Displaying remarkably well.

Weight: 2,126 g
Dimensions: Length 23.5 cm

There are no sharp edges nor refined lines to delineate the bird's features; rather, a careful polishing of the entire body and a characteristically streamlined form seem to have been the craftsman's pursuit. Its superb size and polish, the latter still visible beneath the calcified areas, elucidate its importance in the retinue of an important official.

The bird image in Chinese art is an ancient one. Produced at the same time as painted representations, three-dimensional birds sculpted from clay and stone go back to the neolithic period, as witnessed in the Hemudu culture along the lower valley of the Yangzi River (5000-3000 BC) and in the slightly later Dawenkou culture (4300-2400 BC), whose bird-and-sun motif carved on ivory is thought to be the source of the primitive belief that was passed over to the Liangzhu culture, in the border zone of Zhejiang and Jiangsu (3400-2200 BC). In the northeast, around Liaoning and Inner Mongolia, the Hongshan culture (3500-2200 BC) is well known for having produced jade pendants in the shape of birds with spread wings. Scholars question whether the distribution of jade birds along the eastern coastal zone was related to the sun-bird motif of the Liangzhu culture or to the ancient myth of wild-birdmen which originated in the eastern region.

Literature comparison:
Compare a related smaller celadon and russet jade figure of a bird, Neolithic period, Hongshan culture, 8 cm, illustrated by Angus Forsyth and Brian McElney, Jades from China, The Museum of East Asian Art, Bath, 1994, cat. no. 13, and later sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 28 November 2019, lot 742.