A yellowish-green jade 'hare' pendant, Western Zhou dynasty | 西周　玉兔

Tiffany Chen, Selected Works of Jade, Aurora Art Museum, Taipei, 2003, pl. 74.

Sun Qingwei, Jades of Western Zhou Dynasty, Aurora Art Museum, Taipei, 2005, pl. 191. 

Pierced with a suspension hole through the front leg of the hare, the present pendant would likely have been strung together with other pendants, as was customary in the Western Zhou dynasty. 

Small hare-shaped pendants are among the main types of jade animal carvings from the Shang and Western Zhou periods. See a related example rendered with more rounded ears, preserved in the British Museum, London, no. 1935,0115.20, and illustrated in Jessica Rawson, Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, p. 231, fig. 1 lower left, and another green jade example in the Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Boston, object no. 1943.50.305.

See a slightly smaller example depicted in the round (3.9 cm), sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 29th November 2024, lot 1029.

出版

陳臻儀，《古玉選粹》，震旦藝術博物館，台北，2003年，圖版74

孫慶偉，《西周玉器》，震旦藝術博物館，台北，2005年，圖版191

本玉兔前腿處帶一穿孔，誠如西周時期之習俗，本玉飾應與其他玉飾串聯成組佩戴。

兔形小玉飾乃商代及西周時期常見之動物玉雕題材。參考一相類但雙耳較圓潤之作，藏於倫敦大英博物館（館藏編號：1935,0115.20），載於Jessica Rawson，《Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing》，倫敦，1995年，頁231，圖1左下；另見一青玉例，藏於波士頓哈佛大學藝術博物館／亞瑟·M·賽克勒博物館（館藏編號：1943.50.305）。

比較一尺寸稍小之圓雕作例（3.9 公分），售於香港佳士得2024年11月29日，編號1029。