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Ornate and fairly flat, highly polished bird-like animal made from jade.　

The bird figure faces left as its neck and body curl around ending in swirl tipped feathers. It’s hooked beak is slightly open, its carved round eye looks straight ahead facing left in profile. Simple details and spots of crossed hatched texture are carved into the surface. It’s a milky light green-grey color with browns along some of the tips and bottom edge on lower left. It has two small holes, one at the top center curl, the other at the lower left curl.

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
1943.50.237
Title
Jade Bird Figure in Openwork
Classification
Ritual Implements
Work Type
ornament
Date
4th-3rd 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/205037

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
Highly polished, light gray translucent nephrite with marginal brown markings
Dimensions
H. 2.2 x W. 4.5 x Thickness 0.3 cm (7/8 x 1 3/4 x 1/8 in.)
Weight 4 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. 415 by Max Loehr:

415 Bird Figure in Openwork
Highly polished, light gray translucent jade with marginal brown markings and stains of bronze oxide. The bird’s head is adorned with a long plume that rests on his wings, while his open, pointed beak touches his breast. The wings and the tail form ornamentally conceived bands ending in volutes. Surface patterns of incised concentric curves, striae, and crosshatching. Identical design on both sides. Later Eastern Chou.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.50.237
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. 415, p. 284
  • Jenny So, Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2019), pp. 236, 238, fig. 2

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 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