1943.50.94: Flat Jade Axe with Notches
Ritual ImplementsAn axe blade has been carved from a flat rectangular piece of green jade with diagonal light green streaks. Below, the thinner side flares outward slightly and the cutting edge curves outward. The opposite blunt side on top is square, and the left and right sides each have a set of small prongs that protrude out from just above middle of its height. A small circular hole is cut in the center of the top third, near the thicker edge.
Gallery Text
In Neolithic China, nephrite and other beautiful stones were fashioned into nonfunctional ceremonial blades and ritual implements that were buried in the graves of important people. Many of the same types of jades, such as the diskshaped ritual implement known as a bi, were used during subsequent periods as well.
Identification and Creation
- Object Number
- 1943.50.94
- Title
- Flat Jade Axe with Notches
- Classification
- Ritual Implements
- Work Type
- axe
- Date
- 12th - 11th century BCE
- Places
- Creation Place: East Asia, China
- Period
- Shang dynasty, c. 1600-c. 1050 BCE
- Culture
- Chinese
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/205028
Location
- Location
-
Level 1, Room 1740, Early Chinese Art, Arts of Ancient China from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age
Physical Descriptions
- Medium
- Mottled green and light green nephrite
- Dimensions
-
H. 10.5 x W. 7.9 x Thickness 0.4 cm (4 1/8 x 3 1/8 x 3/16 in.)
Weight 69 g
Provenance
- Recorded Ownership History
- Grenville L. Winthrop, New York (by 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. 18 by Max Loehr:
18 Flat Axe with Notches
Mottled green and light green jade tablet, shaped as an axe with six finely carved teeth protruding along each of the lateral edges. Curved, blunt cutting edge. Conical perforation. Shang(?).
Acquisition and Rights
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
- Accession Year
- 1943
- Object Number
- 1943.50.94
- 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
- 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. 18, p. 48
- Jenny So, Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2019), p. 120, fig. 1
Exhibition History
- 32Q: 1740 Early China I, Harvard Art Museums, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050
Subjects and Contexts
- 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