A JADE FUNERARY VEST, WESTERN HAN DYNASTY, 3RD-1ST CENTURY BC
This lot is from a single owner collection and is therefore offered without reserve

Published: Myrna Myers (ed.) & Filippo Salviati (auth.), Radiant Stones. Archaic Chinese Jades, Paris, 2000, no. 121.

China. The funerary vest composed with small rectangular plaques cut from various kinds of jade, shaped on the top to follow the curve of the neck and shoulders. The plaques richly and meticulously incised at the chest with a majestic phoenix in flight, and each with small perforations drilled at each corner through which a metal thread is passed to hold them together.

Provenance: The Collection of Sam and Myrna Myers, Paris, France. Acquired between circa 1965-2012.
Condition: Good condition with wear and natural imperfections including fissures, few cracks, and inclusions, small chips, expected minor losses, and scattered corrosion to the jades. Although all components look 100% original, the possibility that there are replacements can never be excluded with absolute certainty.

Dimensions: Size 72 x 57 cm (excl. frame), 88 x 66 cm (incl. frame)

Set inside a frame, behind glass.

The influence of Daoist ideas about immortality and the preservation of the body after death undoubtedly inspired the Han-dynasty practice of encasing the body of high-ranking persons in funerary suits made of jade. Once known only through textual references, the existence of jade garments was confirmed after the discovery in 1968 of the undisturbed tomb of Prince Liu Sheng and his consort, Dou Wan, at Mancheng, Hubei province (see literature comparison). Since then, more than forty complete or partial jade suits have been discovered by Chinese archaeologists, mostly in sites located in eastern China.

Elderly people in China traditionally prepare special clothes to be buried in, known as shouyi, which directly translates to ‘longevity clothes’, before they pass. However, nobles of the Han dynasty preferred more elaborate burial attire, like the jade burial suit, also known as a shroud or coffin. Made entirely of jade pieces linked with gold, silver, or copper threads, these suits were a mark of high status.

Both literary and archaeological sources suggest that jade suits more elaborately decorated than those found at Lingshan (Mancheng) were also produced. Han shu records a 'pearl robe jade suit' in its description of the funeral accorded the notorious eunuch Dong Xian. The Tang commentator Yan Shigu (581-645) explains the phrase: ‘A pearl robe has pearls for the tunic like a suit of armor sewn together using gold thread. From the waist down the suit is jade (plaques), and down to the feet it too is sewn together with gold thread.' If no archaeological corollary to this kind of shroud has yet been reported, there are at least two known examples of suits made from plaques that were engraved and then decorated with gold thread or foil on their surfaces. The dragon, floral, and cloud patterns rendered in gold found on these plaques may indicate that over time jade suits became even more elaborate. See Robert L. Thorp, "Mountain Tombs and Jade Burial Suits: Preparation for Eternity in the Western Han", in Ancient Mortuary Traditions of China: Papers on Chinese Ceramic Funerary Sculptures, 1991, p. 36.

China’s reverence for jade dates back to its earliest civilizations. Mined from mountain streams and possessing an intriguing translucence, jade symbolized noble qualities such as purity and resilience. People wore jade ornaments on a daily basis. At the sites of the Liangzhu culture, located near present-day Hangzhou, Zhejiang province and regarded as one of the oldest civilizations in the world over 4,000 years ago, archeologists have discovered numerous jade ornaments and disks. The Book of Rites, a collection of texts mainly published in the Han dynasty on the society and politics of the Zhou era, recorded that ‘a gentleman shall not part with his jade without cause’.

Literature comparison:
Jade garments such as the present lot, although conforming to basic models and to a widely diffused funerary practice, show frequent differences, probably reflecting personal choice and taste. Compare the two gold-threaded jade burial suits of Liu Sheng, a king of the Western Han dynasty, and his wife Dou Wan, who both died in the 2^nd century BC, discovered near the top of Lingshan Mountain, Hebei province, and now exhibited at the Hebei Museum, Shijiazhuang. Compare a closely related jade shroud sewn with gold wire, dated to the 2^nd century BC, 175 cm long, discovered in a princely tomb at Shizishan, Xuzhou, northern Jiangsu province. Compare a closely related jade burial suit threaded with gold, Western Han dynasty, unearthed in 1985 from a Han dynasty tomb in Yongcheng, Henan province, and now in the Henan Museum.