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An off-white jade disk with a circle cut out in the middle. The top left and right of the disk are slanted with an irregular edge.

The off-white jade disk has a circle cut out in the middle and lays flat on a dark grey background. There are some small red and brown discolored spots on the piece. The top left and right of the disk are slanted with an irregular edge.

Gallery Text

The Shang refined Neolithic jade-making practices, fashioning ritual blades and implements of even greater sophistication than those of their predecessors, incorporating jade blades into turquoise-inlaid bronze hafts, and expanding their jade repertoire into representational shapes of humans and animals.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.50.527
Title
Jade Disk-Axe
Classification
Ritual Implements
Work Type
disk-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/204491

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
Opaque, ivory-colored nephrite
Dimensions
Diam. 18.1 x Thickness 0.3 cm (7 1/8 x 1/8 in.)
Weight 166 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. 22 by Max Loehr:

22 Disk-Axe
Fairly large, thin disk of opaque, ivory-colored jade with a sharp-edged, straight walled perforation. Two symmetrical, chordal cuts, converging upwards, have removed two segments of the disk. Along each of the edges so formed appears a set of six serrations. The arc below them has been ground to a sharpened edge, thus transforming the disk into an axe. The arc above the serrated parts was left blunt. Shang.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.50.527
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

  • Alfred Salmony, Archaic Chinese Jades from the Edward and Louise B. Sonnenschein Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, IL, 1952), pl. 14:I
  • 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. 22, pp. 50-51
  • Kristin A. Mortimer and William G. Klingelhofer, Harvard University Art Museums: A Guide to the Collections, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press (Cambridge and New York, 1986), no. 13, p. 21
  • Jenny So, Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2019), p. 100, ill.; pp.120-21, cat. 11

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: 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