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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.50.68
Title
Ge-halberd Blade with Geometric Design and Inscription
Classification
Ritual Implements
Work Type
dagger-axe
Date
Early 2nd millennium (c. 1700–1500) BCE (blade); late Shang period (c. 1100–1050) BCE (inscription)
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, China
Period
Shang dynasty, c. 1600-c. 1050 BCE
Culture
Chinese
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/205287

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Opaque ivory-white nephrite altered to chalky white with red cinnabar accretions
Dimensions
22.9 x 6 x 0.6 cm (9 x 2 3/8 x 1/4 in.)
unspecified: 121 g
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: late Shang period (c. 1100–1050) BCE: "Offered sacrifice to King Dayi, hunted at Lin [palace], Yu in attendance" (translation by Li Xueqin, 1997; see Jenny So, Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2019), cat. no. 13, pp. 126-129.)

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. 29 by Max Loehr:

29 Dagger-Axe
Ivory-colored calcified jade, coated in places with cinnabar and earth. Crested blade with beveled edges and a slightly downward-pointing tip; the somewhat narrower tang is also beveled. A fracture runs through the conically drilled hole between the shoulders of the blade. In front of the hole on both sides of the blade there is an incised pattern of double and triple lines. On the obverse side, to the left of the rectangle, is an incised inscription of ten or eleven characters in a ductus comparable to that of the oracle bone inscriptions; it is discussed in the section on inscriptions in the Introduction. Shang.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.50.68
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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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. 003, pp. 6-7, 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. 29, p. 54
  • Jenny So, Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2019), pp. 126-129, cat. 13

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