Lot 46. A dragon-carved jade dagger handle, Tang-Five Dynasties; 16cm length. Sold for US$88,575 (Estimate US$800 - 1,200). © Bonhams 2001-2023

Boldly chased and incised with a winged three-claw dragon flying in mid-air chasing a 'pearl just beyond its open jaws, the scaly serpentine body coiled between stylized cloud scrolls, capped with gilt bronze mount and with remnant of an iron blade, the olive-green stone smoothly polished and stained with iron rust from burial.

Provenance: John Sparks Ltd., London
Eskenazi, Ltd., London
J. J. Lally & Co., New York, 1991
Robert P. Youngman Collection, New York, 1994
Sotheby's Hong Kong, The Robert Youngman Collection II, 3 April 2019, lot 3439.

Published: Youngman, The Youngman Collection of Chinese Jades from Neolithic to Qing, Chicago, 2008, pl. 57.

Note: Compare the openwork jade dragon plaque in archaic style from the Mottehedeh Collection, now in the Royal Ontario Museum, exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum and illustrated in the catalogue of the Oriental Ceramic Society Chinese Jade Throughout the Ages, London, 1975, no. 280, described as Song or Jin period, 12th – 13th century.

Compare also the openwork dragon plaque in the British Museum carved in a similar style included in the same exhibition and illustrated in the catalogue, op. cit., no. 283.

For a very similar Warring States example showing stylistic connection with the present example, see The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Jadeware I, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 192, no. 160, from the Qing Court Collection.