Two jade disks that are attached by a square hinge at the center. They are pale green and brown in color. The disks are circular with the centers cut out. There are four cut-out swirling pieces in each corner of the disks. The disks are detailed with engr
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

The two jade disks are attached by a square hinge at the center and shown horizontally. They are pale green and brown in color on a dark grey background. The left-hand disk has brown coloring along the left and bottom edges while the right-hand disk has brown coloring along the top and bottom edges. The disks are circular with the centers cut out. There are four cut-out swirling pieces which create corners of the disks. The disks are detailed with engraved, swirling patterns throughout.

Gallery Text

During the Warring States and Han periods, jades functioned not only as ritual and burial items, but also as objects of personal adornment for the living. Other luxury materials, such as gold, bronze, and glass began to be incorporated with jades with greater frequency.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.50.472
Title
Pair of Hinged Jade Disks
Classification
Ritual Implements
Work Type
ornament
Date
5th-4th century BCE
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, China
Period
Zhou dynasty, Warring States period, 475-221 BCE
Culture
Chinese
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/204782

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
Light greenish gray nephrite with brown areas
Dimensions
H. 3.8 x W. 9 x Thickness 0.4 cm (1 1/2 x 3 9/16 x 3/16 in.)
Weight 26 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. 507 by Max Loehr:

507 Pair of Hinged Disks
Light greenish gray jade with marginal brown areas, a material typical of the jades from Chin-ts’un. The movable disks were carved from a single slab that must have been as thick as the hinge or, more precisely, of the shorter diameter of its oval. This fluted hinge connects the disks by way of the peripheral extensions of their lattice-like openwork. The design of the latticework on one disk differs from that on the other; similarly, the outer extensions at the opposite side of the disks have the shape of birds in one case, and that of vaguely defined animal heads in profile in the other. Both sides of each disk are decorated with relief curls of varying forms and sizes, arranged in a roughly concentric order rather than on a grid. Late Eastern Chou.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.50.472
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. 507, p. 342
  • Jenny So, Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2019), pp. 240-2, cat. 32A

Exhibition History

  • 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

  • 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