A Hongshan type celadon jade 'pupa' pendant, Possibly Bronze Age, late 2nd millennium BC | 公元前二千年晚期 或青銅時代 紅山類型青玉蠶蛹形飾

Jenny F. So, Chinese Jades from the Cissy and Robert Tang Collection, The Chinese University of Hong Kong Art Museum, Hong Kong, 2015, cat. no. 2b.

蘇芳淑，《玉澤恆輝：喜聞過齋藏玉》，香港中文大學文物館，香港，2015年，編號2b

The present lot belongs to a small group of curved tubular, pupa-form jades with perforations drilled for suspension associated with Hongshan-related sites in southeast Inner Mongolia, such as four similar examples found from Nasitai, Balinyou banner, currently in the Balinyou Banner Museum, see ‘Neiminggu Balinyouqi Nasitai yizhi diaocha [A study on the archaeological site at Nasitai, Balinyou Banner, Inner Mongolia]’, Kaogu [Archaeology], Beijing, 1987, vol. 6, pp. 507-518, and also an unfinished pupa-shaped jade from the Hongshan ritual complex at Niuheliang, illustrated in Niuheliang – hongshan wenhua yizhi fajue baogao (1983-2003) [iuheliang: Archaeological report of the Hongshan culture site], Beijing, 2012, vol. 2, p. 320, fig. 85:3.

青玉質，弧形，背部橫穿一孔，頭部雕一雙圓眼。在傳統文化中，玉蠶象徵著財富，常打孔佩戴。此類玉雕蠶蛹形飾屬紅山文化類型玉雕，內蒙古巴林右旗博物館藏有四例，見〈內蒙古巴林右旗那斯臺遺址調查〉，《考古》，1987年，第6期，頁507-518。另見牛河梁紅山文化遺址群出土一例，著錄於《牛河梁．紅山文化遺址發掘報告（1983-2003）》，北京，2012年，卷2，頁320，圖85:3。