Lot 2706. A large jade carving of a ‘pig-dragon’, Hongshan culture, circa 4000-3000 BC; 4 5/8 in. (11.8 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 3,000,000 - HKD 5,000,000 (USD 385,335 - USD 642,224). Price realised HKD 6,125,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019 

The jade is carved as a coiled stylised mythical animal with incised circular eyes below pricked ears, and pierced with a circular aperture to the centre between a slit and a smaller aperture for suspension. The stone is of a green tone with extensive areas of white alterations, box.

Provenance: Yangdetang Collection, acquired in Taipei prior to 1999.

Literature: Jades of Hongshan Culture, 2007, Taipei, p. 63, no. 15

Note: As one of the Neolithic cultures developed across northern China, Hongshan Culture is named after the archaeological site behind Hongshan (Red Hill) in Chifeng city, Inner Mongolia, discovered by the Japanese archaeologists Kosaku Hamada and Seiichi Mizuno in 1935. Initially termed ‘Chifeng Culture Phase 1’, it was later renamed Hongshan Culture in 1954. Findings include painted pottery, pottery with impressed zigzag or combed design, fine stone tools, as well as polished stone carvings. Hongshan Culture spans across southeast Inner Mongolia, west Liaoning and north Hebei. A small number of findings were also found in northwest Jilin. Excavated sites include Zhizhu Mountain in Chifeng, Xishuiquan, Sandaowanzi in Aohan Banner, Sileng Mountain, as well as Nanyangjiayingzi in Barin Left Banner etc. Hongshan Culture is dated to circa 3500 BC based on radiocarbon dating of its archaeological finds.

It is very rare to find a carving of a pig-dragon in the current size. For other examples of pig-dragons carved in a similar style with a single aperture, compare with a dark green jade example (16.6 cm. high) unearthed from Yangcheng, Bairin Right Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, now in the Bairin Right Banner Museum (fig. 1), illustrated ibid., p. 105, no. 9; a celadon one (15 cm. high) in the Liaoning Provincial Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Relics, illustrated in Hongshan wenhua yuqi jianshang, Beijing, 2014, p. 94, no. 1 (fig. 2); and a third example (13 cm. high) from the Irving Collection, sold at Christie's New York, 21 March 2019, lot 1180.

A dark green jade carving of a ‘pig-dragon’, Hongshan culture, circa 4000-3000 BC, 16.6 cm. high, unearthed from Yangcheng, Bairin Right Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, now in the Bairin Right Banner Museum.

A celadon jade carving of a ‘pig-dragon’, Hongshan culture, circa 4000-3000 BC, 15 cm. high, in the Liaoning Provincial Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Relics.

From the Irving Collection, no. 95. A large archaistic pale green and russet jade carving of a "pig-dragon", China; 5 1/8 in. (13 cm.) high. Sold for 2,295,000 USD at Christie's New York, 21 March 2019, lot 1180. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019