A RARE LARGE NEOLITHIC HEADPIECE

Description:

China, probably Neolithic period, Hongshan Culture (c. 3500-2000 BC)
H. 14,2 cm
The headpiece of beige-white, brown and black mottled, smoothly polished jade and of oval section is flaring slightly towards the obliquely cut top. The headpiece probably had been used by men as a kind of crown on the head with the shock of hair put inside and fixed.
South German nobleman's property, according to records acquired from an old Japanese private collection collected in the 1920s
Cf. J.J. Lally, New York, ''Chinese Archaic Jades and Bronzes'', 4, 30.06.1993, no. 20, an almost identical headpiece of beige jade mottled with white, brown and black inclusions, Hongshan culture, and with further references. - Yang Boda, ''Chinese archaic Jades from the Kwan Collection'', The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1994, nos. 8 +9, very similar headpieces of differently coloured jade with further references. - Hongshan Culture Jade Jade, Shanghai 2003, nos. 12-18, all similar headpieces, the closest in colour to the present headpiece is no. 18. - Christie's, London, 4.11.2008, lot 108, with further references. - Christie's, New York, 16/17.9.2010, lot 952, a very similar headpiece and of similar colouring from the Sackler collections with further references etc.
The stone with whitish alteration and a fine filled crack and and a short filled hairline at the top