1943.52.56: Gilt Bronze Buckle with Jade Inlay
Ritual ImplementsIdentification and Creation
- Object Number
- 1943.52.56
- Title
- Gilt Bronze Buckle with Jade Inlay
- Classification
- Ritual Implements
- Work Type
- ornament
- Date
- 206 BCE - 9 CE
- Places
- Creation Place: East Asia, China
- Period
- Han dynasty, Western Han period, 206 BCE-9 CE
- Culture
- Chinese
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/204657
Physical Descriptions
- Medium
- Gilt bronze with nephrite and turquoise inlay
- Dimensions
-
23 x 3.4 x 3.9 cm (9 1/16 x 1 5/16 x 1 9/16 in.)
unspecified: 219 g
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. 576 by Max Loehr:
576 Inlaid Gilt Bronze Buckle
The long, slender gilt bronze frame, terminating in a neatly modeled animal head with turquoise eyes, is inset with longitudinally grooved jade panels and four transverse jade bars. Filling the end of the buckle is a jade animal-mask plaque. The side of the frame are decorated with symmetrically laid-out serpent-dragons in low relief; their heads form clamps which hold the two transverse jade bars farthest removed from the center. Flanking the panel nearest the hook appear two larger profile dragon heads in relief, which face toward the hook; their eyes are inset with turquoise. Serving as a clamp for the animal mask plaque is a small bird-like head, again with turquoise eyes; this head is linked to vaguely wing-shaped elements on the sides.
The particular bright green color of the jade inlay, suggestive of jadeite rather than nephrite, may have been caused by bronze oxide resulting from contact with the frame. Western Han(?).
Acquisition and Rights
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
- Accession Year
- 1943
- Object Number
- 1943.52.56
- Division
- Asian and Mediterranean Art
- Contact
- am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
- Permissions
-
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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. 576, p. 398
Verification Level
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