Covered Jade Cup with Gilt Bronze Fitting Decorated with Three Felines and Three Crested Birds

Gallery Text

As its name implies, the Warring States period (475–221 BCE) was an era during which various states that were ruled by powerful clans competed for supremacy in China. The high demand for luxury goods to furnish the tombs of wealthy nobles enabled numerous artistic traditions to flourish, resulting in an array of ornate artifacts from this period and the subsequent Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE). Bronze vessels continued to be commissioned by the ruling elite during both eras, but the addition of gold and intricate openwork designs (here seen on the gilt bronze pedestaled dou and the small openwork pou vessels) transformed this previously austere tradition into a more decorative artistic craft. Jade containers made in shapes traditionally used for bronze or lacquer vessels (such as the three exhibited here) were the epitome of ostentation, as there was no better way to demonstrate wealth than to reproduce a luxury item in a more expensive medium.

Identification and Creation

Object Number: 1943.51.22
Title: Covered Jade Cup with Gilt Bronze Fitting Decorated with Three Felines and Three Crested Birds
Classification: Vessels
Work Type: vessel
Date: 2nd-1st centuries BCE
Places: Creation Place: East Asia, China
Period: Han dynasty, Western Han period, 206 BCE-9 CE
Culture: Chinese
Persistent Link: https://hvrd.art/o/204564

Location

Location: Level 1, Room 1600, Early Chinese Art, Arts of Ancient China from the Bronze Age to the Golden Age

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Physical Descriptions

Medium: Translucent pale green nephrite with brown veins and slightly calcified, bone-colored patches; gilt bronze rim
Dimensions: H. 7.7 x Diam. 11.2 cm (3 1/16 x 4 7/16 in.)
Weight 543 g

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History: [C. T. Loo & Co., New York, January 23, 1933] sold; to Grenville L. Winthrop, New York (1933-1943), bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943.

Published Text

Catalogue: Ancient Chinese Jades from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University
Authors: Max Loehr and Louisa G. Fitzgerald Huber
Publisher: Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1975)

Catalogue entry no. 521 by Max Loehr:

521 Pyxis
Translucent light green jade, with brown veins and slightly calcified, bone-colored patches. The vessel is cylindrical and fairly thin-walled. It stands on three short feet and is provided with an elegantly recurved annular handle. Opposite this handle is a ring suspended from a loop that is set into an animal mask on the side of the vessel. The surface of the wall is decorated with a meticulously carved pattern of small squarish knobs arranged in two zones, which are separated by a plain concave band. A net of engraved lines connects these knobs vertically, sideways, and diagonally. On the inside of the bottom is an incised medallion composed of a tripartite whorl turning left, the petals of a quatrefoil in tangential position, and a quadripartite whorl turning right around the petals. The same medallion appears in smaller scale on the outside of the bottom, where it is surrounded by a “cloud scroll” of curlicues and hooks connected by sweeping, overlapping curvilinear bands. A remarkable quality of this scroll design is the absence of symmetry and repetition.

The lid, which is convex, is decorated on its upper face with a narrow zone of discontinuous curvilinear motifs, within which are situated three distinct, simple mountain forms, and with a simple quatrefoil design in the center. The décor zones are framed and divided by two concentric, plain concave bands. Attached to the center of the lid by means of an ingenious device is a small fluted jade ring. It is held in place by a moveable loop with a shank that passes through an oval hole pierced through the lid just off center. In turn, This shank is engaged below the lid by a plano-convex button with an oval hole to receive the ends of the shank. Small perforations through the button and the shank allow a splint to pass through them, connecting them in such a manner that the splint would be barely visible.

The lid is inserted into a rather heavy, gilt bronze ring. On the upper side, the ring is modeled in high relief configurations, showing three felines in varying postures moving in a terrain suggested by curved bands. Between the three sectors allotted to felines are rectangular slots into which are inserted three standing bird figures, superb creatures with tall necks, crested heads, nicely modeled wings, soaring plumes, and crisply curved tails. End of Eastern Chou or Western Han.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop

Accession Year

1943

Object Number

1943.51.22

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

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Publication History

Takayasu Higuchi, ed., Chugoku bijutsu, dai 4-kan (Chinese Art in Western Collections vol. 4: Bronze and Jade), Kodansha (Tokyo, Japan, 1973), pl. 106
Max Loehr and Louisa G. Fitzgerald Huber, Ancient Chinese Jades from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, Fogg Art Museum, 1975)., cat. no. 521, p. 352-3
Jenny So, Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2019), pp. 36-37, fig. 2.10a; pp. 292-3, cat. 42
Katherine Eremin, Angela Chang, and Ariel O'Connor, Jade in the Lab, Early Chinese jades in the Harvard Art Museums, Harvard Art Museum (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2019), Pages 28-47, Figure2.10a, Page 37

Exhibition History

S427: Ancient Chinese Bronzes and Jades, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 10/20/1985 - 04/30/2008
Re-View: S228-230 Arts of Asia, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 05/31/2008 - 06/01/2013
32Q: 1600 Early China II, Harvard Art Museums, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

Collection Highlights
Google Art Project

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

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1943.51.22: Covered Jade Cup with Gilt Bronze Fitting Decorated with Three Felines and Three Crested Birds