QIN-HAN DYNASTY, 3RD-2ND CENTURY BC

This rare figure is related to two other small jade standing figures shown wearing belted robes with deep sleeves but different types of headdresses illustrated by J. Rawson and J. Ayers in Chinese Jade throughout the Ages, Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 1975; no. 140, from the British Museum, holds a sword in front of his body, the other, no. 141, in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Richard C. Bull, stands with hands clasped within the sleeves in front of the body. Both of these figures are dated Eastern Zhou period, 4th-3rd century BC. Compare, also, three other figures in the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection illustrated by M. Loehr in Ancient Chinese Jades, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, 1975, pp. 281 and 282, nos. 409-411. Each of these figures has his hands clasped in front within the sleeves of the long, belted robes with striated borders similar to those of the present figure. No. 409 wears a headdress that is also tied under the chin, but the ends of the ties flare out to the sides in an exaggerated manner that is similar to another related figure illustrated by J. F. So in Chinese Jades from the Cissy and Robert Tang Collection, Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2015, pp. 120-21, no. 20. This figure, dated late Eastern Zhou or early Western Han, also has one hand raised beside the head and the other in front of the body, but is described as wearing a dancer's robes. Like the present figure the hair in back is rendered in curved parallel lines below the headdress, and the belted robe has striated borders. Another related figure in the Qing Court Collection, Beijing, is illustrated in the Complete Collection of Treasures in the Palace Museum - 40 - Jadeware (I), Hong Kong, 1995, p. 210, pl. 177, where it is dated Warring States period.