The thick plaque carved in the form of a recumbent ox with the features of the face and limbs delineated in grooved details, the pale green stone with areas of opaque buff inclusions.

Provenance: J.D.Chen King Kwei 
Mr and Mrs Malcolm E. McPherson, acquired from Mayuyama & Co., Tokyo, in the late 1950s
Christie's New York, 19 March 2008, lot 474 (part lot)
The Songzhutang collection, no.24

Exhibited: San Francisco, Golden Gate Park, Hall of Flowers, Treasures of the Orient, The Society for Asian Art, 1979, no.13

Published and Illustrated: T.Fok, The Splendour of Jade: The Songzhutang Collection of Jade, Hong Kong, 2011, pl.24

Note: Small animal-shaped carvings form one of the main categories of the Shang and early Western Zhou dynasty jades. A higher level of carving and artistic skills were developed during the late Shang period such as relief carving, round carving and double-line incision, as demonstrated in the present lot.

Compare a greyish-white jade ox-shaped ornament of similar form, Shang dynasty, illustrated in Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum: Jade 2 Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, Beijing, 2011, p.113, pl.94. See also a jade ox, late Shang dynasty, illustrated by Cai Qingliang, Jades of Shang Dynasty, Aurora Art Museum, Taipei, 2010, p.225, pl.181.

Bonhams. THE SONGZHUTANG COLLECTION OF EARLY JADES from the Neolithic Period to the Yuan Dynasty, 30 May 2017, 14:00 HKT - HONG KONG, ADMIRALTY