Finial in the shape of a bird in Han style

This warmly polished jade is mostly black on one side and gray on the other, with light-gray veins and a few flaws. This piece has multiple functions. The tenon structure of the dove's round foot ring indicates that it could serve as a finial ornament; the two horizontally connected holes on the front of the chest and beneath the tail indicate that the bird could also be hung tied to something. The shallow relief used for the feathers on the top of the head, the sides of the neck, and the wings echoes that seen on archaic jade birds, but the use of four perforations on one piece are a late design. Details of the eyes, beak, and wings are embellished with intaglio lines, simple but succinct.

The bird finial is one of the most ancient motifs in prehistoric artifacts. It goes back to the pictograph depicting a bird standing on a cylindrical support, which originated in Liangzhu jade. Four bronze bird finials from Eastern Zhou tombs (770–256 b.c.e.) of the Wu-Yue culture zone along the lower valley of the Yangzi River reinforce the importance of the image in the south in ancient times ([author] 1988, 3, 4). A legendary story asserts that because birds saved Emperor Liu Bang's life, the image signified gratitude. It was used to embellish finials commemorating people over the age of seventy who had served the country. There are no reliable excavated jade bird finials, however; the earliest known example, from the Liantien Shanfang collection, is attributed to the Eastern Zhou period (Teng Shuping 1995, [page no.?], plate 61).