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A pale yellow and white jade disk with a circle cut out in the middle.

The pale yellow and white jade disk has a circle cut out in the middle and lays flat on a dark grey background. The center has a small raised lip around it.

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
1943.50.536
Title
Jade Collared Disk
Classification
Ritual Implements
Work Type
disk
Date
c. 1600 - 771 BCE
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, China
Period
Shang dynasty (c. 1600-c. 1050 BCE) to Western Zhou period (c. 1050-771 BCE)
Culture
Chinese
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/204574

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
Ivory-colored nephrite with creamy yellow markings and signs of calcification
Dimensions
Diameter 16.1 x Thickness of collar 0.6 cm x Thickness 0.4 (6 5/16 x 1/4 x 3/16 in.)
Weight 202 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. 101 by Max Loehr:

101 Collared Disk
Larger and heavier piece of the same type as the preceding one, fashioned of ivory-colored jade with creamy yellow markings and signs of calcification. A radial crack stops short of the collar. The perforation appears to have been biconical. 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
1943.50.536
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, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1975), cat. no. 101, p. 98
  • Jenny So, Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2019), cat. no. 10B, pp. 116-119

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 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