A Pair of Jade Owl Sculptures from the Shang Dynasty

Description

This pair of jade owls are made of the same piece of jade. The two jade owls are similar in size and have the same carving styles. The jade is greenish white, with white porridge-like texture changes inside and obvious crystallize soil erosion marks on the surface.
The jade owl looks up at the sky. It has “臣” shaped eyes with slightly convex eyeballs. The hook-shaped mouth connects to the lower jaw to form an ornamental hole. The ridges are raised from the face to the mouth and are symmetrical on both sides. The ridges and edges are neatly cut. A pair of ear-shaped crowns hang behind the head. The wings are folded, and the claws are stretched forward in a sitting position.
The whole body of the jade owl is decorated with double lines, the belly covers wavy patterns. The wings, and the ears adopt the technique of embossing, which is the most complicated carving decoration technique at that time.

The overall shape of this pair of jade owls is a typical sitting owl style of the Shang Dynasty. It is fully carved, meticulous, sharp, neat and smooth. Generally, this kind of engraving level definitely represents this pair of jade owls must come from the hands of the top craftsmen at the time.