- Gallery Text
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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.
- Identification and Creation
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- 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
- Location
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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
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- 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
- Provenance
- Grenville L. Winthrop, New York (by 1943), bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943.
- Published Text
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- 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. - Acquisition and Rights
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- 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
- THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.
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- Publication History
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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
- Exhibition History
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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
- Subjects and Contexts
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Google Art Project
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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