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A jade ring that is caramel colored. It has an average-sized band width. There are relief-cut shapes that create mask designs all around the piece.

A jade ring that is caramel colored and laying flat on a white background. It has an average-sized band width with a smooth top. There are relief-cut shapes that create mask designs all around the piece. The masks are in square shapes with some relief rectangles in between them.

Gallery Text

Before the advent of metallurgy, numerous Neolithic cultures — which relied primarily upon stone tools, farming, domesticated animals, and pottery making — were scattered throughout vast regions of China. The cultures that produced the most remarkable earthenware (ceramics fired up to about 1000° C) tended to inhabit areas along China’s major rivers, and by the late Neolithic period (c. 5000–c. 2000 BCE), two notable ceramic types distinguished themselves from coarser utilitarian pottery — painted earthenware from settlements along the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River, and black pottery from cultures near the lower Yellow and Yangzi River valleys. Painted ceramics were hand-built, made of fine reddish or buff clays, and embellished with dark slip (liquid clay) to create vibrant, mostly abstract designs. Black pottery vessels were wheel-thrown, sometimes to the thinness of an eggshell, blackened during the firing process, and burnished to a high gloss. These delicate objects were impractical for daily use and were likely used for ceremonial purposes. Several Neolithic cultures also fashioned beautiful jades or hard stones — usually nephrite, an extremely hard mineral native to China — into ceremonial tools and weapons, ritual objects, or items of personal adornment. These jades were sliced, shaped, perforated, incised, and polished using non-metallic tools and abrasive crystals of even greater hardness than the jade itself, a painstakingly labor-intensive process that only the privileged could afford.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.50.490
Title
Jade Ring with Mask Designs in Relief
Classification
Ritual Implements
Work Type
ring
Date
3300-2000 BCE
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, China
Period
Neolithic period, Liangzhu culture, c. 3300-2200 BCE
Culture
Chinese
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/204821

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 light and dark brown stone with a small green patch on the inner wall
Dimensions
H. 2.4 x Diam. 9.6 x Thickness of ring 1.2 cm (15/16 x 3 3/4 x 1/2 in.)
Weight 184 g

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[Yamanaka & Co., New York] sold; to Grenville L. Winthrop, New York (by 1918-1943), 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. 607 by Max Loehr:

607 Heavy, Desecrated Bracelet
Ring of mottled light and dark brown stone, with a small sea-green patch on the inner wall. The outer wall is decorated with eight rectangular panels in relief, showing alternately two distinct masks of strange design. The simpler design shows a pair of eyes indicated by concentric circles with short horizontal lines at both sides of each eye and a relief bar with incised angular spirals beneath the eyes. The other, more complex design, consists of a pair of eyes surrounded by concentric circles, which are crossed by three bundles of radial striae; in the ovals that encompass these configurations and between them are confined areas of angular meanders and criss-cross striations; a bar with incised angular meanders (as in the simpler masks) is placed at the bottom. Above each of the eight masks are two horizontal ridges with finely incised grooves. The designs are worn but still clear. Date uncertain.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.50.490
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. 607, p. 418
  • Jenny So, Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2019), cat. no. 2, pp. 76-77

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

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