Add to Collection

Add this item to an existing or new collection.
Harvard Art Museums
Incorrect Username, Email, or Password
A jade hook that is off-white in color on a black background. It is long and narrow and is geometric in shape. There is a small foot that holds up the center part. The left side curls up while the right side slopes down.

The jade hook is off-white in color on a black background. It is long and narrow with a small foot that holds up the center part. The entire piece has been cut into clean, straight geometric shapes with three small peaks in the middle part. The left side curls up while the right side slopes down.

Gallery Text

During the Warring States and Han periods, jades functioned not only as ritual and burial items, but also as objects of personal adornment for the living. Other luxury materials, such as gold, bronze, and glass began to be incorporated with jades with greater frequency.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.50.462
Title
Garment Hook
Classification
Ritual Implements
Work Type
ornament
Date
3rd-2nd century BCE
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, China
Period
Warring States period (475-221 BCE) to Western Han period (206 BCE-9 CE)
Culture
Chinese
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/199592

Location

Location
Level 1, Room 1740, Early Chinese Art, Arts of Ancient China from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Pale green and cream-colored nephrite, partly calcified, but still glossy
Dimensions
L. 14.4 x D. 3.4 x W. 1.8 cm (5 11/16 x 1 5/16 x 11/16 in.)
Weight 92 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. 469 by Max Loehr:

469 Belt Hook
Pale green and cream-colored jade, partly calcified, but still glossy. Tapering off in width toward the hook, the body, which is squarish in section, is distinguished by an unusual and exquisitely designed décor composed of a set of three transverse bars with tectiform elevations formed by concave slopes meeting at a sharp crest. The hook has the shape of a simplified animal head with marginal ridges on top. As in the preceding two specimens, the button is rectangular and flush with the supporting stud and lateral faces. The surfaces are plain. The longitudinal edges between the bars are chamfered. At the end of the shaft is a short, recurved, blunt-tipped appendage. Late Eastern Chou.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.50.462
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.

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Publication History

  • Dorothy W. Gillerman, ed., Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1969), no. 032, pp. 26-27
  • 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. 469, p. 320

Exhibition History

  • Re-View: S228-230 Arts of Asia, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 05/31/2008 - 06/01/2013
  • 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