MING DYNASTY (1368-1644)

Compare to a similar hairpin in the standard late Ming form, illustrated by James Watt, Chinese Jades from the Collection of the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, 1989, no. 53, where the author notes that the famous jade carver, Lu Zigang, of Suzhou, who was active during the second half of the sixteenth century, carved hairpins in a similar openwork style. See, also, another hairpin included in the exhibition 5,000 Years of Chinese Jade, San Antonio Museum of Art, 1 October 2011-19 February 2012, and illustrated in the Catalogue, p. 122, no. 85, where it is noted that "jade hairpins were fashionable in the Ming dynasty and were an adornment limited to the elite".