Belt parts

Here are 2 white rectangular pieces I got from my friend, the connoisseur collector. She didnt want them because she thought that they were not collectible enough. Maybe she's right, who'd want these dusty rectangles ? Yeah, but I the gypsy collector just grabbed them ! I am not known as Garang Guni for nothing. Heh! Heh!

Each is pierced with six holes for attachement and the material looks like glass imitating jade but I am not sure. Perhaps it may be calcite.

In the book "Chinese Antique Glass" there are belt sets made up of components such as what I show. These examples appear in p.57, 62, 66. So it would not be too presumptious for me to think that my rectangles had once been used to make up belt sets too. The book gave timelines ranging from Tang to Ming, quite a lengthy and safe timeline, and I hope I will not be censured by glass shifus for following this guideline.

These rectangles are completely plain and unadorned so I am guessing that they maybe "grave goods" or they maybe used by less wealthy folks who could not afford jade.

Here's another belt piece which is also rectangular in shape and smaller than the above pieces. It may have been used as a "filler" or end spacer, examples of which can be seen in "Chinese Antique Glass" p.68. It is pierced on one side with two vertical holes and on the reverse side with two ox-nosed holes and the two sets of holes converge.

Ox-nosed holes

Hmm, I am wondering what manner of stringing or attachement went with such holes ? Unfortunately the long descriptive Chinese text in "Chinese Antique Glass" is beyond my comprehension. Trying to obtain information from Chinese books without knowing the language can be a handicap. It can even be a landmine which I had once upon a time fallen into. For example the author may use a Fake piece to illustrate some point he wishes to bring out, but the reader, who can't read the fine print unwittingly sees it as a real Mccoy. Ha Ha Ha !! Well, I have finally mastered the word for FAKE (FANG)in Chinese and its a word I am not likely to ever forget. Ahhh.. I am just dreaming that in an alternate life, or if there is a third dimension, I can cross over (as in "Hard Boiled Wonderland" ) to be an archaeologist or a Chinese interpreter? :))

3 Faces Bead

This face bead/pendant was first posted on July 20th 2008. https://baiyu-quietmuse.blogspot.com/2008/07/face-bead-3.html

I have only just discovered that this is in fact a 3 faces bead (3 faces of Eve?) After reading Chinese Jades through the Wei Dynasty by Alfred Salmony p.107 and seeing a similar (but not IDENTICAL) piece, I realised that the central human face is sandwiched by 2 tiger heads at each end. Look at the bead vertically and you will see what I mean :

And how foolish of me not to detect it. I had not looked hard enough and had thought the tiger heads were some trellis border (blush !)

There are three differences between my face bead/pendant and the one shown in Salmony's book.

1. My pendant is pierced at one end only while Salmony's is pierced at both ends.

2. My pendant is flat with identical carvings on both sides while the book example has a plain concave back.

3. The carving on my pendant is less stylised and dramatic than the book example.

Bearing all these differences in mind can my face pendant claim relationship and similar vintage, ie middle Zhou around 1027-771 BC ? Well, vintage considerations aside, it is still a real neat bead/pendant that intrigues.

And so my inscrutable "tygers" were you shaped by some "immortal hand or eye"? :))


 Update 2019 : A similar shape ornament/face pendant posted on Freer and Sackler Museums website