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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.50.555
Title
Jade Disk with Pattern of Incised Spirals
Classification
Ritual Implements
Work Type
disk
Date
4th cent. BCE - 1st cent. 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/204608

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Translucent, dark green nephrite
Dimensions
0.5 x 14.7 cm (3/16 x 5 13/16 in.)
unspecified: 201 g

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. 403 by Max Loehr:

403 Disk with Pattern of Incised Spirals
This disk, with its flat outer and inner margins, is decorated with a pattern of incised spirals on very low, hexagonal elevations. The linear treatment of the spirals is quite distinct from the plastic treatment in the preceding piece, No. 402, and more pronouncedly, Nos. 385 ff. A striking, cross-shaped, whitish discoloration marks both sides of the translucent, dark green stone; presumably this cross is a local calcification brought about by contact with the organic matter contained in a rope or band that was tied to the disk. Late Eastern Chou or Western Han.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.50.555
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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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. 403, p. 275
  • Jenny So, Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2019), pp. 37-38, fig. 2.11a-b; pp. 282, 284-5, cat. 39C
  • Katherine Eremin, Angela Chang, and Ariel O'Connor, Jade in the Lab, Early Chinese jades in the Harvard Art Museums, Harvard Art Museum (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2019), Pages 28-47, Figure 2.4a-b, Page 33; Figure 3.11a-b, Page 38

Verification Level

This record was created from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator; it may be inaccurate or 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