1943.50.32 (top) and 1943.50.30 (bottom) Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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1943.50.32 (top) and 1943.50.30 (bottom) Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.50.30
Title
Heavy Jade Knife with Concave Cutouts
Classification
Ritual Implements
Work Type
knife
Date
Longshan culture (?), c. 2500 BCE - c. 2000 BCE
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, China
Period
Neolithic period
Culture
Chinese
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/205249

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Mottled gray-green and dark brown stone
Dimensions
55.6 x 10.4 x 1 cm (21 7/8 x 4 1/8 x 3/8 in.)
unspecified: 1361 g

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

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. 213 by Max Loehr:

213 Heavy Knife with Concave Cutouts
Mottled gray-green and dark brown stone blade, which represents a typological variant of the trapezoidal knife. It resembles that type in its straight back, the three conical perforations aligned along the back, and the double-beveled cutting edge. The left edge, however, which as not been completely ground into shape, dose not slant, and the right end of the blade has a form all its own. Both at the back and at the cutting edge there are curved cutouts, each with two transverse projections. Beyond these cutouts the blade tapers to a triangular end, which, again, is incompletely finished. The cutouts are reminiscent of knives Nos. 211 and 212, while the transverse ridges are a feature linking this piece to the extraordinary shafted axe, No. 195. Early Western Chou(?).

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.50.30
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Alfred Salmony and Florance Waterbury, Chinese Jade Through the Wei Dynasty, Ronald Press (New York, NY, 1963), pl. 10: 2
  • Dr. Minao Hayashi, "Chugoku kodai saigyoku zuigyoku (Ceremonial jade in ancient China)", Toho Gakuho (March 1969), no. 40, pl. 54: 4
  • Takayasu Higuchi, ed., Chugoku bijutsu, dai 4-kan (Chinese Art in Western Collections vol. 4: Bronze and Jade), Kodansha (Tokyo, Japan, 1973), pl. 100
  • 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. 213, p. 166

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