Three celadon jade handles, Mid Shang dynasty - Western Zhou dynasty or later | 商中期至西周或更晚 青玉素面紋柄形器兩件 及 鳳鳥紋柄形器一件

First on the right:

Ku Ngar Antique Limited, Hong Kong, 8th June 2002.

First on the left:

Ku Ngar Antique Limited, Hong Kong, 21st October 2000.

右一：

古雅閣，香港，2002年6月8日

左一：

古雅閣，香港，2000年10月21日

In the Shang dynasty, jade handles of this type often were shaped into a blade, probably used as carving tools. Compare a mid-Shang-dynasty jade handle in the Shandong University Museum, illustrated in Gu Fang, The Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China, Beijing, 2005, vol. 4, p. 36. Some jade handles were inscribed, probably served as ritual objects. See two such examples illustrated in ibid., vol. 5, p. 81 and 82. In the Western Zhou dynasty, this type of jade handle seems to have evolved into pure ornament with holes, and covered with carved patterns, see a related Western-Zhou example in the Palace Museum, Beijing, decorated with patterns of two birds, published in Zhongguo yuqi quanji [Complete collection of Chinese jades], Shijiazhuang, 1993, vol. 2, pl. 278.

素面玉柄形器一端方頭，束頸，尾部削成短刃，皆青玉，一青黃，一深綠，為商代中晚期風格；鳳鳥紋柄形器亦青玉質，上段陰線勾勒鳳鳥一對，下段陰刻鳳鳥紋一隻，正反皆然，底部成凸起狀，無刃，為西周風格，時期或更晚。

商代此類柄形器底部常開刃，推測為刻畫工具。可比較山東大學博物館藏一件商中期玉柄形器，見《中國出土玉器全集》，北京，2002年，卷4，頁36。又有表面朱書祭名，如「祖甲」，「父癸」者，或為祭器，形制與本二件類似，見前書，卷5，頁81及82。此類柄形器至西周似乎演化為單純裝飾玉，常帶穿孔，表面砣碾陰刻紋飾，如北京故宮博物院藏一件西周雙鳥紋柄形器，本件紋飾玉質相近，惟為陰線勾勒，見《中國玉器全集》，石家莊，1993年，編號278。