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A dark green and white jade disk with a circle cut out in the middle. There are many carved rings on the piece.

The dark green and white jade disk has a circle cut out in the middle and lays flat on a dark grey background. The piece has irregular coloration and some faint spots throughout. There are many carved rings on the piece. The center has a small raised lip around it.

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
1943.50.538
Title
Jade Collared Disk
Classification
Ritual Implements
Work Type
disk
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/204575

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
Soft green nephrite with calcified areas which have turned white and opaque
Dimensions
Diam. 18.2 x Thickness of Collar 0.8 x Thickness 0.3 cm (7 3/16 x 5/16 x 1/8 in.)
Weight 207 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. 102 by Max Loehr:

102 Collared Disk
Large disk with a low collar around the inner edge. The jade is of a soft green hue, with calcified areas which have turned white and opaque. On both sides of the disk are incised, circular grooves, grouped in four concentric bands and separated by slight furrows. Most uncommon is the following phenomenon: visible on the upper side of the disk, within the substance of the jade itself, is a lei-wen pattern, not originally part of the décor, which in all likelihood is the result of a chemical reaction with a textile in which the disk was wrapped. Shang or Western Chou.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.50.538
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. 102, p. 99
  • Jenny So, Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2019), pp. 116-118, cat. 10A

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