1943.50.26: Jade Dagger-Axe or Knife Blade
Ritual ImplementsIdentification and Creation
- Object Number
- 1943.50.26
- Title
- Jade Dagger-Axe or Knife Blade
- Other Titles
- Alternate Title: ko
- Classification
- Ritual Implements
- Work Type
- dagger-axe
- Date
- 16th cent. BCE - 11th cent. BCE
- Places
- Creation Place: East Asia, China
- Period
- Shang dynasty, c. 1600-c. 1050 BCE
- Culture
- Chinese
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/205194
Physical Descriptions
- Medium
- Opaque, bluish gray-green nephrite that has turned a dull buff and light brown color over a large part of the surface
- Dimensions
-
29.8 x 8.6 x 0.5 cm (11 3/4 x 3 3/8 x 3/16 in.)
unspecified: 203 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. 60 by Max Loehr:
60 Dagger-Axe or Knife Blade
Opaque, bluish gray-green jade that has turned a dull buff and light brown color over a large part of the surface. The blade has a crest from tip to butt, and neatly ground, longitudinal facets that curve out at the beginning of the tip. The tip is quite unusual; its shape might require that the blade be interpreted as an upward-pointing, recurved knife rather than as down-ward-pointing ko. The edges are nearly straight, ending with sharply cut shoulders, from which the broad, plain tang issues. A conical hole is drilled through the crest, behind the shoulders. The axis of the tang seems to favor the interpretation of this blade as a knife. Shang.
Acquisition and Rights
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
- Accession Year
- 1943
- Object Number
- 1943.50.26
- 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. 60, p. 70
Verification Level
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