A Chinese Late Neolithic jade carving of a bird,... Lot 2

A Chinese Late Neolithic jade carving of a bird, Hongshan culture, 4700 - 2900 B.C. Stylized bird of nephrite. Impressive by its reduction to the essential forms of a bird and its strict symmetry. The flat, broad figure served as a pendant, as the two holes on the back suggest. With age patina and traces of sintering. Intact. Height 5.2 cm. Width 5.5 cm. Similar pendants have been found at Hongshan sites, such as Hutouhou in Fuxin, Liaoning province and a Balinyouqi in Inner Mongolia. Cf. J. Rawson, Chinese Jades from the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, pl. I:5. Provenance: From a South German family collection, acquired by the father in China in the 1920s and 1930s. Condition: II