Horizonal small gold buckle object with a stylized jade dragon inlaid into the center.　
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

The inlaid dragon’s head looks straight up, its sinewy snake-like body has stopped in an action pose. It’s a uniform color of creamy grey-green. Swirl patterns in the gold catch the light at different angles. A small animal head with blue eyes tapers off on the left while the right end of the object is wider. It looks like something that could fit in the hand.

Gallery Text

During the Warring States and Han periods, jades functioned not only as ritual and burial items, but also as objects of personal adornment for the living. Other luxury materials, such as gold, bronze, and glass began to be incorporated with jades with greater frequency.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.52.59
Title
Gold Garment Hook with Inset Jade Dragon
Classification
Ritual Implements
Work Type
ornament
Date
4th-3rd century BCE
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, China
Period
Zhou dynasty, Warring States period, 475-221 BCE
Culture
Chinese
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/204661

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
Gold with translucent, light gray nephrite and glass inlays
Dimensions
L. 15.4 x W. 4.1 x D. 3.2 cm (6 1/16 x 1 5/8 x 1 1/4 in.)
Weight 230 g

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[C. T. Loo & Co., New York, January 18, 1934] sold; to Grenville L. Winthrop, New York (1934-1943), 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. 474 by Max Loehr:

474 Heavy Gold Buckle with Inset Jade Dragon
Cast gold buckle, designed to hold the translucent, light gray jade dragon figure that adorns the curved, shield-like part of the buckle. The gold setting, too, represents a dragon whose head, seen in profile, fills the lower right corner, while his tail encircles the head of the jade dragon, which is seen en face . The gold dragon is cast in one piece with the sturdy, nearly straight-sided frame which terminates in two concave arcs. At the opposite end, the frame merges into the body of a third dragon, whose head forms the hook of this buckle. The dragon’s body is rendered asymmetrically, with a strong, sinuous leg emerging on his left side and bending down to the opposite side, and finally ending in two long, curved claws that clutch the tail of the other gold dragon. Both gold dragons have glass-paste eyes: white and turquoise blue ones for the head that forms the hook, and a white one with a discolored iris for the other. Near the upper and lower ends of the gold setting rise en cabochon dark blue glass beads, partly decomposed and iridescent. Along each side of the frame are two oval cavities; three of them retain opaque, bluish black, pitted glass inlays. These inlays partly obscure incised designs of extremely elongated figures of birds with very small indistinct heads.

“The hollow back,” according to the report of an examination made by J.R. Gettens in March 1946, “is partly filled with a brown material which appears to have been applied as a plastic substance…. It might originally have been lacquer. Partially embedded in this filling are actual remains of a coarsely woven fabric and also remains of wood…. The grayish filling in the hollow in the back of the hook is a mineral substance which contains a considerable amount of calcium carbonate. It seems to be some sort of plaster filling.”

A peculiar feature worth mentioning is a series of four small cabochons resembling pin heads set into holes drilled along the left edge of the jade dragon; they are of a transparent, dark green substance, which, in reflecting light, shows a reddish golden gleam. Another such cabochon is set into the glass bead below the hook, where the contrast with the corroded glass makes it obvious that the inset is of a distinct substance. There is no button on the back; apparently it was attached as a separate member which is lost. Late Eastern Chou or early Western Han.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.52.59
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Takayasu Higuchi, ed., Chugoku bijutsu, dai 4-kan (Chinese Art in Western Collections vol. 4: Bronze and Jade), Kodansha (Tokyo, Japan, 1973), pl. 104 a
  • 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. 474, p. 324
  • Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac, The China Collectors: America's Century-Long Hunt for Asian Art Treasures, Palgrave Macmillan Ltd (New York, 2015), fig. 3
  • Jenny So, Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2019), pp.40-41, figs. 2.17, 2.18a-b; pp. 246, 247-8, cat. 34B
  • Katherine Eremin, Angela Chang, and Ariel O'Connor, Jade in the Lab, Early Chinese jades in the Harvard Art Museums, Harvard Art Museum (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2019), Pages 28-47, Figure 2.17, Page 40; Figure 2.18a-b, Page 40

Exhibition History

  • S427: Ancient Chinese Bronzes and Jades, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 10/20/1985 - 04/30/2008
  • Re-View: S228-230 Arts of Asia, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 05/31/2008 - 06/01/2013
  • 32Q: 1740 Early China I, Harvard Art Museums, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

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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