China, 5^th century BC to 1^st century AD. Of flattened form and crescent shape, finely carved in openwork as a dragon in profile with its head depicted with a circular eye, open jaw and a curled crest. Its body tapering to a pointed tail. The semi-translucent stone is of a dark green hue with cloudy inclusions, russet veining, and calcification.

Provenance: From the Sam and Myrna Myers Collection. Sam and Myrna are first generation Americans, who shared a taste for collecting beautiful objects of art. On a trip to Ascona, Switzerland, the couple stumbled into a small antique shop which started their journey of collecting antiques. When Sam Myers was sent to Paris by his law firm in the mid-1960s, he and his wife Myrna became so enamored with the city that they decided to make it their home. There, over the course of 50 years, they built an extraordinary art collection, and in 1976, Myrna opened a gallery in Paris specializing in Asian art. Their collection spans a wide range of precious objects from Chinese jades, ceramics, textiles, Indian ivory carvings, to Japanese clothing and lacquer, some of which was exhibited in the Kimbell Art Museum. Part of their collection was sold at Sotheby’s, London ‘Two Americans in Paris, The Collection of Sam and Myrna Myers’, on 4 November 2021. The couple also worked together with jade expert Filippo Salviati to create one of the most outstanding jade collections globally and authored several books on jade, including ‘Radiant Stones’ (2000), ‘The Language of Adornment’ (2002) and ‘Genèse de l’empire céleste’ (2020).
Condition: Very good condition, commensurate with age. Old wear, signs of weathering and erosion, soil encrustations, most certainly from a prolonged period of burial, and minor nibbling to edges.

Weight: 16 g
Dimensions: Length 10 cm

Literature comparison:
Compare a near identical jade pendant in the form of a crescent-shape dragon, 12.5 cm long, dated to the Warring States period, once a part of the Qing court collection, in the National Palace Museum, illustrated in The Complete Collection of the Treasures of the Palace Museum: Jadeware, Hong Kong, 1995, p. 184, no. 153. Compare a related jade Huang in the shape of a dragon, 6 cm long, dated to the 3^rd century BC, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 2008.285.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Related
Auction: Christie’s Hong Kong, 29 November 2022, lot 2730
Price: HKD 945,000 or approx. EUR 116,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A pair of jade reticulated ‘dragon’ pendants, Xi, Western Han dynasty
Expert remark: Compare the related subject with crescent shaped dragons similarly modeled. Note this lot consists of a pair.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Related
Auction: Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8 April 2023, lot 3829
Price: HKD 254,000 or approx. EUR 30,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A grayish-white jade ‘dragon’ pendant, Eastern Zhou dynasty, Warring States period – Han dynasty
Expert remark: Compare the related style and subject. Compare the similar weathering. Note the slightly smaller size (8.5 cm).