Weiner Mihályné szerk.: Az Iparművészeti Múzeum Évkönyvei 7. (Budapest, 1964)
HOPP FERENC MÚZEUM — MUSÉE FERENC HOPP - Horváth, Tibor: Four Archaic Chinese Jade Carwings
Lü T a-lin in 1092. Desmond Gure pointed out that such attempts to re-create archaic objects were already existing in the 10th century. 8 It is extremely difficult to date the knot-opener belonging to the Museum. In identifying its style we may use a jade belt piece or a part of a chain found in grave no. 1 at Hui Hsien Ku Wei Ts'un in the province of Honan, see the Report on the Excavations at Hui Hsien, 9 or the same at William Watsons, Archaeology in China 10 (the backward-glancing animal figure which tops the angular object is especially helpful for classification). The spirals inside (also on the animal's body) seen on our piece, the C-shaped horns, ring-four curved lines-dots elements are helpful for dating the object. These place the knotopener in question to the beginning of the Eastern Chou (Late Chou) c. 6—5th century. The general preservation of the jade speaks also in favour of this. This jade, described in the previous paragraph, has helped Us to clarify the use and age of a similar object with openwork design, also in our Chinese collection (figure 3). Its considerable size, unpractical width and thinness (0,3 cm) which tends to an extreme fragility and has made it unsuitable for practical purposes. It was probably used as a sort of insignia. We can class it as a knot-opener primarily on the basis of its pointed lower end which has three sections resembling a comma, each with a line down the centre. It is like a spread-out version of the original round type, in this respect, closely related to figure 2, but certainly not made for practical use. The decorations are the same on both sides. On the upper part of the jade plate, we can clearly see a long-necked swan with raised wing but the head is much too big for a swan, it is a beakless head of a beast. (This syncretistic form of representation is a common practice is the art of the Shang-Yin, the Chou dynasties, as well as in the Scythian and related art of the Nomads, in the so-called Animal Style.) Under the swan there is a bird with a short, powerful beak and a crest extending the length of its neck. A profile of a man can be found above the Comma-shaped decorations of the pointed lower end and under the second bird. His hair and beard are indicated by engraved parallel lines. Two concentric ovals form the eyes and the ear lobe is marked with an engraved circle indicating-perhaps-that it was pierced. A short distance below the ear, there is a reversed T-form. The outline of the chin and the lines representing the mouth and the smile ( ? ) are combined in a relief-line unit. The almost horizontal line at the edge of the bird's breast as a border-line, suggests that a nearly round headdress is set on the head of the man. It has two openwork holes in the centre and engraved lines in its lower section. With the representation of the hair and beard in mind, these likely indicate hair or fur trimming of the hat. It would be rather difficult to describe the components of the detailed parts surrounding the recognizable representations. If the form of the object, at least in broad outlines, were pre-determined, we can only think of these elements as filling in the intervening space, although we cannot imagine that the purpose of the openwork was solely to reduce the weight of the thin plaque, making it more delicate or perhaps just to emphasize the main motives. Unfortunately, we are 8 The Art of the Sung Dynasty, London, The Oriental Ceramic Society, 1960. p. 44. 9 Hui Hsien fa-chüeh hsüeh pao. Peking, Chung-kuo Ko-hsüeh-yüan, 1956. fig. 99. pi. 53. 2. 10 London, Max Parrish, 1960. fig. 82. b.
