A rare archaic jade ‘dragon mask’ bead, Neolithic period, Liangzhu culture

Hong Kong Private Collection. 

Robert H. Ellsworth, New York.

Anthony Carter Ltd., London.

Decorated with three horizontal registers of carved low-relief dragon masks, the present lot is a superb and rare example of the type of jade beads produced by the Liangzhu culture. While Liangzhu jade beads are more commonly left undecorated or carved with the standard mask motif featuring large whorl-shaped eyes above a horizontally rendered nose filled with incised lines, the present bead stands out for its distinctive dragon-mask decoration, making it an exceptional example of the type.

The present lot may be the largest-known jade bead decorated with 'dragon masks'. See two closely related beads, similarly decorated as the present lot, but with two registers instead of three, and of a much smaller size (2.85 cm), excavated from tomb no. 12 at Fanshan, Yuhang in Zhejiang province, now housed in the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, and illustrated in Gu Fang, The Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China, vol. 8 Zhejiang, Beijing, 2005, pl. 81.