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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.50.199
Title
Jade Scabbard Buckle
Classification
Ritual Implements
Work Type
ornament
Date
3rd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, China
Period
Han dynasty, Western Han period, 206 BCE-9 CE
Culture
Chinese
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/204910

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Translucent, pale green nephrite with russet and dark brown markings
Dimensions
8 x 3 x 2.5 cm (3 1/8 x 1 3/16 x 1 in.)
unspecified: 63 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. 457 by Max Loehr:

457 Scabbard Buckle
Translucent, pale green jade with russet and dark brown markings. The surfaces have a glossy finish, except for those parts that would remain invisible when the buckle is mounted. The boldly modeled décor, a draconic feline with a long fluted and twisted tail of symmetrical form, evidently was devised so as to exploit the given shape of the raw pebble. An atypically short, straight projection takes the place of the normally curved part of the bar above the bracket, while the long projection below the bracket slopes sideways. The bracket itself is deprived of its normally rectangular shape, one of its corners being rounded, the other one ground off obliquely. 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
1943.50.199
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. 457, p. 311

Verification Level

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