AN EXCEPTIONALLY LARGE JADE NOTCHED DISC (XUANJI) LATE NEOLITHIC PERIOD - SHANG DYNASTY

the outer edge carved with three pronounced notches forming three arcs, each set with a pair of triple-notched serrations, the center pierced with large circular aperture, a double-line lightly carved  across one side, the calcified stone well-polished to a mottled whitish-gray with black veining, one side with faint traces of a leiwen pattern

Gordon Harris, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, 1971.

Dr. Peter M. Greiner, Astronomical Instruments End of the Shang or Beginning of the Chou Dynasty, (Master Thesis), University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1981. 

The stone is slightly translucent when held against the light, the surface is smoothly polished and slightly uneven and of unusually large size.There is a faint diagonal crack running along a natural fissure in the stone approximately 11 cm in length and visible on both sides. There is a small approximately 1 cm wide chip to the tip of one notch and one of the small notched sections with chips to the middle tips. There are traces of a dark stained leiwen pattern approximately 7 cm in length to one side and two approximately 2.5 cm wide rectangular stains to the reverse side, one significantly darker than the other. There are two finely incised straight lines crossing a third finely incised straight line on one side.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Discs feature prominently among jade artefacts recovered from sites of the Neolithic period to Han dynasty. Among them, notched discs form a small but distinctive group. Defined by the deep indentations that divide the circumference into segments, the earliest examples have been found in late Neolithic sites on the east coast in Shandong province and in the west in Shaanxi province. For an overview on the development of notched discs, see Jessica Rawson, Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, pp. 160-162.

The present disc is unusually large, and only one other jade notched disc of this impressive size appears to be recorded, from the David David-Weill collection, sold in our Paris rooms, 16th December 2015, lot 24 (fig. 1).

A much smaller disc excavated from Lizhuang, Teng Xian, Shandong province, attributed to the Longshan culture of the Neolithic period (ca. 2500-2000 BC) shows a closely related profile to the present disc, compare Zhongguo yuqi quanji, vol. 1, Hebei, 1992, no. 42.

Several notched discs can be found in collections formed in the 1920s and 1930s, such as a disc formerly in the Eumorfopoulos Collection, London, and later acquired by the British Museum in 1937, illustrated in Soame Jenyns, Chinese Archaic Jades in the British Museum, London, 1951, pl. X. Compare also an example from the collection of HRH King Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden, published in Nils Palmgren, Selected Chinese Antiquities from the Collection of Gustav Adolf Crown Prince of Sweden, Stockholm, 1948, pl. 40.1.