Jade. China, Late Neolithic period, Liangzhu culture, c. 3300-2200 BC 玉鐲 - 新石器時代晚期, 良渚文化, 約公元前3300-2200年 The stunning impact of this roughly hewn bracelet, a form attested amongst the jades of the Liangzhu culture, is due to the simplicity of its design and the extremely dark colour. The thick flat edges contrast with the wide concave border, and the dark green, almost blackish colour of the stone, due to the high content of iron, is crossed by numerous patches and veins of white. The very few areas of the originally light green translucent jade can only be seen when the object is held to the light. The jade is smoothly polished, though not to a high lustre, and irregularities can be felt more on the outer side of the bracelet where the tool marks can be discerned. The border also presents uneven thicknesses, a clear sign of manual workmanship. A Liangzhu culture bracelet with a similar concave border has been found in tomb no.4 of the Zhanglingshan site, Wu county, Jiangsu province. A second, slightly smaller bracelet has also been discovered in an early Warring States tomb excavated in Shandong province: see Gu Fang, Zhongguo gu yuqi tu dian中國古玉器圖典 (The pictorial handbook of ancient Chinese jades), Beijing 2007, pp.82 and 199. From Western collections, compare, amongst the many, a bracelet of similar shape and diameter in mottled ivory and grey jade from the A. W. Bahr (1877-1959) collection and another slightly smaller one in russet-coloured jade from the Robert H. Ellsworth (1929-2014) collection: both sold at Christie’s New York on 16 September 2010, sale 2509, lot 954 and 19 March 2015, sale 11420, lot 499, respectively. A further similar bracelet was sold at Galerie Zacke on 2 December 2017, cat. no.12. Provenance: From a French collection DIAMETER 8 CM - WIDTH 2 CM - THICKNESS 1 CM 直径 8 厘米 -寬2 厘米 - 厚1厘米 Expertise: Univ. Prof. Filippo Salviati All jades in this catalogue have been professionally examined, authenticated and dated by Univ. Prof. Filippo Salviati. Professor Salviati teaches Chinese and Korean art at Sapienza University in Rome, in the Italian Institute of Oriental Studies. He is a world expert on archaic Chinese jades, having released multiple publications and being cited by renowned auction houses such as Sotheby’s.