Jade facetted ring (huan)

A large jade ring, the surface undecorated and smoothly polished.  The inner edge of the ring is facetted on both sides, whilst the outer edge slopes down to one side only.  The translucent stone is of pale green colour with some small white inclusions.

•  It is likely that this ring once formed part of a pectoral set.  A closely comparable ring from the Avery Brundage collection at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco was exhibited in Paris in 1997.1  Describing the latter, Knight points out the difficulty of dating jades devoid of ornament, but states that close examination of such pieces can reveal technical traces consistent with the presumed period of manufacture.  

1. Li, H., Bartholomew, T., Knight, M. and Yu, C.  Jade chinois, pierres d’immortalité, musée Cernuschi, no. 44, p. 88-9