1943.51.6: Dagger-Axe in a Bronze Haft with Curved End
Ritual ImplementsGray and buff colored jade is carved to a somewhat rectangular shape, with one side angled to a blunt point at the tip. The blade is set in a bronze handle with a short haft the same width as the blade. Behind the haft is a narrow hand guard, from which the rest of the handle extends. The handle is narrower than the haft and curves downward at the end. The bronze handle and haft are fitted with a mosaic of small turquoise pieces in varying shades of blue green set in a geometric design. Bronze oxide encrusts much of the handle.
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
- 1943.51.6
- Title
- Dagger-Axe in a Bronze Haft with Curved End
- 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/204613
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
- Olive-green and gray nephrite blade; bronze haft inlaid with turquoise
- Technique
- Inlaid
- Dimensions
-
L. 27.8 x W. 6.7 x Thickness 0.5 cm (10 15/16 x 2 5/8 x 3/16 in.)
Weight 309 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. 79 by Max Loehr:
79 Jade Dagger-Axe in a Bronze Haft with Curved Butt
Flattish, biconvex blade of olive-green and gray jade with light buff clouds. The blade is mounted into a tang with a rectangular socket, a vertical hafting bar and a curved butt. Both the socket and the butt are decorated with turquoise set into cloisons: the socket shows a t’ao-t’ieh mask; the tang, a “dragon” figure with convolute tail. A layer of bronze oxide covers the left side of the tang, while the right side has been cleaned to expose the inlay patterns. Shang.
Acquisition and Rights
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
- Accession Year
- 1943
- Object Number
- 1943.51.6
- 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. 79, p. 79
- Jenny So, Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2019), pp. 122-25, cat. 12C
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 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