Catalogue entry no. 630 by Max Loehr:
630 Huang Segment
Evenly dark brown, faintly translucent and rather soft stone in the shape of a disk segment. The back is plain while the front is decorated with a symmetrical composition of dragon heads with vaguely defined bodies. The heads are made to resemble Western Chou types as seen, for instance, on tablets Nos. 243 and 244. In the present case, however, such designs were evidently misunderstood and what would have been the long, comma-shaped tongue is here reduced to a meaningless series of curls which lie along the outer arc of the segment. The lines that would have depicted the back of the head instead stream off toward the outer top corners. The two horseshoe-shaped motifs that enclose circles are adapted from motifs similar to that seen in No. 243. The rest of the lines, presumably relating to the animals’ bodies, are organically incoherent. The nature of the design suggests that the artisan had only a partial understanding of his models. The technique of double and single lines, reminiscent of Western Chou carving techniques, betrays a uniformity and harshness; similarly, the crenelation of the outer contours seems relatively mechanical. The piece is probably of recent date, a rather free and by no means distasteful adaptation of ancient forms.
