By the middle to late Western Zhou dynasty, more complex surface decoration was executed on jade carvings, including composite creatures often interlaced. The present lot's decoration of stylised dragons in profile within parallel spiralling bands, is exceptionally vibrant and detailed, with the various depths, angles and finely incised lines. |Compare a yellow-brown jade bead with very similar form and decoration, dated Western Zhou, in the Sir Joseph Hotung collection, illustrated by J.Rawson, Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, p.240, no.14:3.|青色玉質，器表和中孔附著少量泥土。玉管器型為扁圓形，下端比上端稍粗，有縱貫全器的中孔，器表琢螺旋狀分佈的龍紋，臣字形眼，張口翹鼻。此器有可能為組玉佩中的構件。|可對比倫敦大英博物館藏何鴻卿爵士舊藏一件西周時期的青玉管，著錄於J.Rawson，《Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing》，倫敦，1995年，頁240，編號14:3。