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Subject:Liangzhu Carvings on Cow Bone...
Posted By: Scott Alexander Sat, Nov 21, 2015 IP: 72.105.143.147

Hello All -
This is appears to be highly worked cow-bone, with a smooth patina and high-quality carvings characteristic of the Liangzhu culture. Both sides of the bone have the Taotie icons, substantial bone has been excised (removed), and the horizontal lines are very smooth. I could find no evidence of circular tooling marks.

I welcome comments and thoughts from the group.

Thanks in advance for any comments or opinions,
Sincerely,
Scott Alexander







Subject:Re: Liangzhu Carvings on Cow Bone...
Posted By: Scott Alexander Sun, Nov 22, 2015

OK - I'll reply to my own posting (since we don't have any other replies yet). I've also added three additional pictures to this post.

(1) This bone is interesting in the amount of carving work which it exhibits. The top of the bone is worked (the natural joint isn't as smooth as is shown in the pictures). Both the front and the back of the bone have the Liangzhu Taotie faces carved in relief (surrounding bone has been removed). There is also a vertical line, on the front and the back, where bone has been removed.

In my opinion, it is a much higher quality carving, exhibiting much finer work than the other , similar speciman that I've found on-line (here: http://guwansoucangchineseantiques.com/products-page/featured-items/very-rare-liangzhu-bone-carving-no-1302/ ).

Is anyone aware of any other, similar specimans (espcially which may have been authenticated)?

Do others believe that this might be archaic, or if not, why not?

Once again, thanks in advance for your thoughts and consideration of thie piece.

Sincerely,
Scott Alexander







Subject:Re: Liangzhu Carvings on Cow Bone...
Posted By: Super Tue, Nov 24, 2015

This is the first time I had seen a Lianzhu cow bone carving and really did not know what to make of it. Strange enough when I googled it I did find a few similar pieces.

I do not believe there are that many authenticated Liangzhu jade pieces around, with probably most of them in renown museums, even good fakes are hard to come by because it would take a lot of time to "carve" taoties with even modern tools. My friend had a large green nephrite Liangzhu style zong with beautiful carvings. He paid more for its postage than it. The material alone would be worth more than what he paid for it.

Bone is cheap and I am not sure it can last that long before it would rot. Also, while you cannot do a carbon test on jade, you can surely do one on bones. While the carvings on your bone carving may appear to be better than other similar ones, but bone is very soft and therefore much easier to carve than jade. I do not find those carving on your Liangzhu style piece really that spectacular. Sorry. In short, I believe the chance for your bone carving to be archaic or even ancient is close to nil. Now of course I can be wrong since I am no expert on Liangzhu cow bone carvings. But if you would pay somebody to do a carbon dating on your piece, you would be easily find out how old the bone is (not necessarily when it was carved though). Cheer.

Subject:Re: Liangzhu Carvings on Cow Bone...
Posted By: Scott Alexander Fri, Nov 27, 2015

Thank, you "Super", for your thoughts.
(1) Your suggestion as to the radiocarbon dating is very pertinent - I see that I could get it dated at Arizona AMS for $600; is anyone aware of other reputable labs which might be less expensive?
(2) One item you mention - that even good fake Liangzhu jade pieces are hard to come by; I do disagree on this point. You can see quite a "passable" Lianzhu pieces on eBay, and pictures of factories where they churn out fake Liangzhu Congs can also be found (e.g. http://hoffmanjade.com/Fig%2008%20Fake%20Factory%20-%20Many%20Congs%20sm.jpg).
(3) I don't believe that there are many (if any) folks making good quality fake Liangzhu cow bones with the Taotie faces (and I think there's probably a reason for that). Even though cow bone is easier to carve than stone, the bone is not not a flat surface and I believe much polishing would need to be done by hand, to come up with a good fake (without obvious machine tool marks). I look at this bone and try to imagine how long it would take me to carve and polish, with a rotating dremel tool. I'd have to be be very careful not to accidently remove the raised portion of the bone as I'm carving and polishing the recessed portions... I believe that it would take a long time, even with modern tools (not to say that it couldn't be done, of course).

This could be a fake piece that someone decided to spend a lot of time to make, but in looking at the detail of the carving: the quality of the polishing is there, the esquisite detail of the Taotie faces is there, the almost microscopic fine parallel lines are there, it's very symetrical, carved and polished consistently all the way around. If you don't see that would be difficult, we can certainly agree to disagree.

SOURCES on LIANGZHU and ARCHAIC CHINESE JADES
=============================================
[1] Real or Fake Jades
http://hoffmanjade.com/real_or_fake_figs.html)

[2] China: Ancient Culture, Modern Land, edited by Robert E. Murowchick, Section titled "Liangzhu Congs"
https://books.google.com/books?id=tO42ZlxKf4cC&pg=PA66&dq=%22liangzhu+culture%22+cong+jade&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwihneqr1rHJAhWSlYgKHQuZAxwQ6AEIJjAA#v=onepage&q=%22liangzhu%20culture%22%20cong%20jade&f=false

[3] The Smithsonian's Museum of Asian Arts, section on Ancient Chinese Jades
http://www.asia.si.edu/explore/china/jades/default.asp

[4] Digital Taiwan - Culture and Nature, Chinse Jades Through the Ages
http://culture.teldap.tw/culture/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26id%3D1960:art-in-quest-of-heaven-and-truth-chinese-jades-through-the-ages



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