Description:

China, probably Western Zhou dynasty
H. 8,5 cm
The flat pendant is carved in the form of a deer depicted standing upright with incised round eyes, pointed ears and long extended antlers. It is pierced above its head for suspension.
Important South German private collection, acquired at The Asian Gallery, London, 1.5.1997 (invoice preserved)
Early jade animal carvings tend to exaggerate the body parts which are most distiactive to that particular animal. Thus, in the present lot, the antlers are deliberately exaggerated and stylised, imparting a high degree of expressiveness and a sense of austere beauty. A few similar examples exist in museum collections. Compare to a slightly shorter Western Zhou jade deer, with a similar carving style of antler, now in the Metropolitan Museum to Art (accession number 24.51.11). Compare also to another flatter pair of Western Zhou stag-form pendants in the British Museum, illustrated in Jessica Rawson, Chinese Jades- from the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, pl. 12:39, p. 231. Also, in the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, there is a (fig. 1) excavated from tomb no. 3 in Tengzhou county, Shandong province, published in The Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China-Shandon, vol. 4, Beijing, 2005, p.176
Very minor traces of age