1943.50.31: Large Jade Trapezoidal Knife with Dentations
Ritual ImplementsCarved from mottled green jade with dark flecks and irregular darker green areas, the blade is a long horizontal shape. The top side is flat, while the sides angle outward slightly, with one side wider than the other. The curved bottom side has been beveled to a sharp edge while the rest of the blade has been left thicker. Along the top side, four small perfectly circular holes have been cut at equally spaced intervals. The surface is polished to a satin sheen.
Gallery Text
In Neolithic China, nephrite and other beautiful stones were fashioned into nonfunctional ceremonial blades and ritual implements that were buried in the graves of important people. Many of the same types of jades, such as the diskshaped ritual implement known as a bi, were used during subsequent periods as well.
Identification and Creation
- Object Number
- 1943.50.31
- Title
- Large Jade Trapezoidal Knife with Dentations
- Classification
- Ritual Implements
- Work Type
- knife
- Date
- c. 2500- c. 2000 BCE
- Places
- Creation Place: East Asia, China
- Period
- Neolithic period, Longshan culture, c. 3000-1900 BCE
- Culture
- Chinese
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/205261
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
- Dark gray-green stone with black areas and light markings
- Dimensions
-
W. 11.2 x L. 61 x Thickness 0.7 cm (4 7/16 x 24 x 1/4 in.)
Weight 926 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. 210 by Max Loehr:
210 Large Trapezoidal Knife with Dentations
Dark gray-green stone with black areas and light markings. The back is straight, but slants irregularly near the right edge, which has rounded corners. The faces slope down to a concave, blunt cutting edge. The left edge of this large tool is decorated with symmetrically carved pairs of transversally grooved teeth, projecting from two low ridges which are divided by a notch. Parallel to the back is a row of four conical perforations of the same size and drilled from the same side. On the reverse side is an elliptical depression, indicating a flaw in the original slab. Shang or Western Chou(?).
Acquisition and Rights
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
- Accession Year
- 1943
- Object Number
- 1943.50.31
- 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
- Dorothy W. Gillerman, ed., Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1969), no. 011, pp. 12-13, repr.
- 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. 210, p. 164
Exhibition History
- 32Q: 1740 Early China I, Harvard Art Museums, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050
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