† A LARGE PALE GREEN JADE ‘CLOUD-SCROLL’ PENDANT, NEOLITHIC PERIOD, HONGSHAN CULTURE
Lot 142 - HS1225

Expert authentication: Dr. Gu Fang has examined the present lot and confirms its authenticity and the dating above, noting the style of cutting, workmanship, thickness and quality of stone with decomposed areas indicating burial all suggest a dating to the Hongshan culture. He assessed it as a piece of notably good quality. A signed and notarized copy of Dr. Gu's expertise, dated 1 February 2022, accompanies this lot.
Dr. Gu Fang (born 1962) is an internationally renowned scholar of Chinese art and a leading authority on jades. He graduated from the Department of Archaeology at the prestigious Beijing University in 1986 and later studied at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), where he now serves as a Senior Fellow specializing in archaeological excavations and Chinese jade research. A former visiting scholar at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, he has authored several books on Chinese jades, including the 15-volume The Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China (2007), one of the most comprehensive studies of its kind, as well as Chinese Jade: The Spiritual and Cultural Significance of Jade in China (2012).

China, c. 4700-2500 BC. Finely carved in openwork as a single unit of a cloud-scroll with subsidiary arched segments protruding from the corners. The top pierced with a circular aperture. The semi-translucent stone of a pale green tone with cloudy-white inclusions, as well as dark and russet mottling.

Provenance: From a private collection in New York, United States.
Condition: One of the protruding segments fractured and subsequently repaired. Otherwise, very good condition, commensurate with age, with ancient wear, natural imperfections, and expected signs of weathering and erosion. A pair of minute chips to exposed areas and minor nibbling along the edges. Small nicks.

Weight: 173.8 g
Dimensions: Length 20.3 cm

The peoples of the Hongshan Culture frequently observed birds of prey gliding over the extensive deserts and steppes situated to the west of the Liao River and north of Mount Yan. These imposing creatures, characterized by their powerful wings and arched beaks, were regarded as divine intermediaries or messengers between the human and celestial realms. The present object, an abstract jade carving conventionally interpreted as depicting one of these mythical birds concealed among the clouds, is thought to have been worn by ritual specialists or shamans during ceremonies aimed at establishing communication with the heavens.

During the process of polishing jade implements, early craftspeople discovered that it possessed not only exceptional hardness and durability but also a luminous quality evocative of spring sunlight. Over time, jade came to be endowed with profound symbolic significance. Much like fine silk with its resplendent sheen, it was believed to embody ‘qi’, a vital energy or numinous power, and thus served as an essential medium in ritual offerings to deities and ancestral spirits. Objects fashioned from jade, particularly those of specific forms or adorned with meaningful motifs, were thought to possess inherent efficacy. Carvings were created in accordance with cosmological principles or modeled after ancestral and mythic beings. Employed in acts of prayer and sacrifice, such artefacts were believed to convey the innermost aspirations of the living to their forebears and to the divine.

Expert's note: This distinctive type of jade with arcs surrounding a central whorl has been found among Hongshan excavations and is known as a ‘hooked cloud’. When properly oriented the similarity of form to the more commonly seen pig dragon and known oracle script characters for Qiu- and Long-Dragon become strikingly visible.

Literature comparison:
Compare a related ‘cloud hook’ pendant, Neolithic period, Hongshan culture, 13.7 cm long, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, accession number 新00200400.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Christie’s Hong Kong, 4 June 2024, lot 3115
Price: HKD 1,197,000 or approx. EUR 135,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A Hongshan-style celadon jade ‘cloud scroll’ ornament
Expert remark: Compare the closely related form and manner of carving. Note the smaller size (14.7 cm).

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Sotheby’s Paris, 10 June 2021, lot 82
Price: EUR 17,640 or approx. EUR 20,000 adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A pale green jade ‘cloud-shaped’ pendant, Neolithic period, Hongshan culture
Expert remark: Compare the closely related form and manner of carving. Note the smaller size (11.3 cm).