Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum | Busch-Reisinger Museum | Arthur M. Sackler Museum

At its most basic level, casting bronze entails pouring a molten mixture of copper and tin into a mold and letting the mixture harden as it cools. In ancient China, the actual process was quite complex and involved ceramics technology in virtually every step. First, a model of the desired shape was created in clay and fired in a kiln; next, fresh clay was packed around this ceramic model, removed in multiple sections, and fired; and finally, the hardened section molds created in this process were reassembled around a ceramic core with space set between core and molds, and molten bronze was poured into this assemblage. The production of bronzes in China was inextricably linked to the region’s millennia-long ceramics tradition — in its use of kiln technology, its adaptation of ceramic vessels for bronze vessel shapes (such as the tripod ewer displayed here), and the creation of a casting method reliant on a potter’s skills.

Object Number

1943.51.16

Title

Jade Dagger-Axe in a Bronze Haft

Other Titles

Alternate Title: ko

Classification

Ritual Implements

Work Type

dagger-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/204593

Medium

Light gray nephrite blade; bronze haft inlaid with turquoise

Technique

Inlaid

Dimensions

L. 20.5 x W. 4.8 x Thickness 0.7 cm (8 1/16 x 1 7/8 x 1/4 in.)
Weight 206 g

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. 71 by Max Loehr:

71 Jade Dagger-Axe in a Bronze Haft
The blade is fashioned of opaque, light gray jade with whitish clouds. Its leaf-like shape and lentoid cross-section distinguish it typologically from the rest of the ko in this collection; the asymmetrically lowered point, however, justifies its designation as a dagger-axe. The blade is inserted into a bronze tang, the rectangular socket and butt of which are decorated with zoomorphic figures in a dazzling inlay of turquoise. The vertical halting bar and the perforated section of the tang behind it, which would be hidden by the wooden shaft, are left plain. Shang.

Credit Line

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

Accession Year

1943

Object Number

1943.51.16

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

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Max Loehr and Louisa G. Fitzgerald Huber, Ancient Chinese Jades from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1975), cat. no. 71, p. 75

S427: Ancient Chinese Bronzes and Jades, 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

Google Art Project

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