1943.50.45: Heavy, Long Jade Chisel
Ritual ImplementsA narrow piece of jade, colored yellow-green with amorphous burnt orange areas, is shaped into a long rectangle. One short edge is beveled thinner, and the opposite side has a small perfectly circular hole cut a short distance from the edge. This side has a light orange colored streak running the width at the edge. Both this and the cutting side have tiny chips missing at the edge.
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
- 1943.50.45
- Title
- Heavy, Long Jade Chisel
- Classification
- Ritual Implements
- Work Type
- chisel
- Date
- Longshan or Erlitou culture, c. 2000 - c. 1700 BCE
- Places
- Creation Place: East Asia, China
- Period
- Neolithic period
- Culture
- Chinese
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/205265
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
- Mottled dark brown and deep olive-green, fine-grained stone
- Dimensions
-
H. 34.6 x W. 6.5 x Thickness 1.4 cm (13 5/8 x 2 9/16 x 9/16 in.)
Weight 660 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. 199 by Max Loehr:
199 Heavy, Long Chisel
Mottled dark brown and deep olive-green, fine-grained stone. The blade has subtly inward curved sides, flat upper and lower surfaces, a beveled cutting edge, and a slanting, semifinished butt. The conical perforation is drilled from one side and reamed at the opposite side. Western Chou(?).
Acquisition and Rights
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
- Accession Year
- 1943
- Object Number
- 1943.50.45
- 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. 199, pp. 156-157
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