Jade fish pendant

A small pendant in the shape of a curved fish, carved in considerable detail with engraved eyes, neatly carved dorsal combs and fins, and a forked tail.  The semi-translucent green stone is smoothly polished and soft to the touch.

•  Small pendants in the form of a fish formed part of bead necklaces or were suspended as jingles from the crossbars of Zhou dynasty chariots.1  They are found in a great variety of shapes, but the curved form, suggesting a leaping fish, is unusual. Precise dating of such pendants is difficult, but both the degree of fluidity in the carving and the incised detail on this competently carved fish suggest a late Shang to early Western Zhou date.  A more stylised curved fish is in the collection of W.P. Chung.2   Another example is in the Hotung collection.3 

1. Dohrenwend, D. Chinese Jades, Ontario 1973, p.22 (quoting from Fengxi report on Zhangchiabo)
2. Yee, Ip Chinese Jade Carving, Urban Council of Hong Kong and the Min Chiu Society, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1983, no. 18, pp. 36-7
3. Chung, WP, Michaelson, C, and So, J. Chinese Jade Animals, Urban Council of Hong Kong and the Min Chiu Society, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1996, no. 27, pp. 62-3