Other variations on the theme of Bis

Still on the theme of BIS, although strictly speaking the jade objects that I show on this post cannot be called Bis. However as their forms are mostly flat, circular and with a hole in the center I have lumped them as such and hope that purists will not hammer me.



The 3 bis in the above pic have a border made up of a "continuous chain of scooped out surfaces," somewhat like a concave hollow of a small saucer. According to my jade seniors(shifus) this scooping out of jade surfaces is a hallmark of Ming period jade.



Left Pic above shows 2 bis with off-centre holes. The first piece is shaped and carved as a flower while the right item also has a border of scooped out surface plus a centre decoration of a flower. They make nice present day pendants.
Right Pic shows an evolution in style. Instead of the chain of scooped out surfaces of the earlier examples this bi features a continuos chain of pearls. In my jade seniors opinion this is reflective of Qing workmanship and design
The 3 bis in the last picture show different kinds of twisted rope design. The first bi shows a thin intricately worked twisted rope, the middle is thick and flat while the one on the extreme right is fat and bulbous. Broadly speaking the first two are of Ming-Qing vintage and the last is a modern piece.
I love collecting these small jade objects and accessories and hope I have not been too off the mark in my descriptions and identification. Otherwise shifus out there may well give me a knock on the head !!

What a lovely way to wear your BI

The BI is a form of jade artifact from ancient China. It is a flat jade disc with a circular hole in the centre

I bought these 2 bi shaped spinach green jade pieces more than 20 years ago from the ancient town of Dali in Yunnan Province. As Yunnan borders Myanmar these dark green jade are likely to have come from that region.

In the present day , bis are mostly used as pendants to be worn on a chain. There are also adaptations of bis as earrings see example below:

Left and center are 2 bis as pendants and on the right is a bi as earring.
It was only recently while reading a travelogue on Yunnan that I came across a picture of an old lady from the Naxi minorities group adorning her ears with a BI teamed up with silver and enamel hoops. See picture below:


This discovery made me realise that my two BIS which come from the same region, must have once served as Naxi or Bai minorities earrings. It gave me an idea to dig through my box of old silver bits and and come up with the copy cat versions as depicted below :



My antique silver and enamel hoops are a little worse for wear. They are not from the same region as the bis but are also Chinese. I estimate the age of this style of ear piece to be about 100 years or maybe earlier in the Qing period.

Inspite of the tarnished silver, What a lovely way to wear your BI !!