LATE SHANG DYNASTY, CIRCA 1300-1000 BC

It is very rare to find a jade carving of a dragon in the round from the Shang dynasty, the closest exmaple is a jade carving of a dragon discovered at the Fuhao tomb with the body coiled to the right, illustrated in Zhongguo yuqi quanji-2-Shang, Zhou, Hebei, 1993, no. 58 (fig. 1). There is a peforation on the tail of the present carving, suggesting that this could have been worn as a pendant.