Arch Tiger Necklace

Across centuries of Chinese art, the tiger became far more than simply an image of the natural world. Powerful and commanding, it appeared in objects carrying associations with strength, protection and authority. Within traditional Chinese cosmology, the tiger was also associated with the western direction.

The object behind the Arch Tiger Necklace belongs to another long tradition: Chinese jade carving.

Preserved today in the British Museum, object 1937,0416.169 is an archaistic arc-shaped pendant, or huang, dating from the 18th–19th century during the Qing dynasty. Fashioned from green-brown jade, its curved body rises at either end into two confronting tiger heads.

The decoration extends beyond the animals themselves. Intricate patterns cover the arch, while inscriptions appear on both faces: four characters contained within a cartouche on one side and a longer ten-character inscription on the reverse.

Its description as archaistic places the pendant within a tradition of looking deliberately towards forms and decorative languages associated with China's earlier past. Yet the object itself belongs to the Qing dynasty—a period in which jade remained an important medium for highly accomplished decorative work.

A related Qing jade preserved at The Metropolitan Museum of Art depicts a tiger in an entirely different form. Catalogued as “Tiger: emblem of the West,” it dates from the late nineteenth to early twentieth century and demonstrates the continued presence of the tiger in Chinese jade carving towards the end of the Qing dynasty.

Created exclusively for the British Museum’s China’s hidden century exhibition, the Arch Tiger Necklace takes its form directly from the Museum's arc-shaped jade pendant. Its confronting tiger heads, sweeping open centre and richly patterned surface have been translated into 18ct gold plated stainless steel, transforming a museum object into jewellery designed to be worn once again.