A RING-SHAPED JADE DRAGON CARVING 'LONG'

Description:

China, probably Eastern Zhou dynasty, ca. 481-256 B.C.
B. 8,3 cm
Of light to dark greyish-brownish mottled, somewhat translucent jade, depicted as a rain dragon with its mouth wide open, biting its own tail, partly decorated with stylized cloud bands.
From the Zeileis collection, assembled in the 1980s and 90s
Cf. with an almost identical 'Long', publ. in: Chinese Jades of the Han Dynasty, Editorial Committee "Five Thousand Years of Chinese Art", Taipeh, 1991, p. 12
Published in: Friedrich Georg Zeileis, 'Ausgewählte Chinesische Jade aus sieben Jahrtausenden', Gallspach, 1994, no. 173, p. 212 - Minor traces of age