Jade Openwork Plaque (Fragment of a Hinged Pair or Set?)

Identification and Creation

Object Number: 1943.50.190
Title: Jade Openwork Plaque (Fragment of a Hinged Pair or Set?)
Classification: Ritual Implements
Work Type: ornament
Date: 4th cent. BCE - 3rd cent. BCE
Places: Creation Place: East Asia, China
Period: Zhou dynasty, Warring States period, 475-221 BCE
Culture: Chinese
Persistent Link: https://hvrd.art/o/204882

Physical Descriptions

Medium: Light gray, russet, and dark brown nephrite
Dimensions: 3.7 x 6.1 x 0.5 cm (1 7/16 x 2 3/8 x 3/16 in.)
unspecified: 17 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. 506 by Max Loehr:

506 Openwork Plaque (Fragment of a Hinged Pair or Set?)
Light gray, russet, and dark brown jade plaque of roughly oval outline. Two larger dragons with turned heads flank a central small dragon set between two rectangular, slotted frames. This small dragon, in headlong position and asymmetrically designed, has a bird’s head and criss-crossed scales, like feathers, on its neck. The rest of its body is marked, like the bodies of the larger beasts, by finely incised curls, cross-hatched areas, and striae. The incised designs are identical on both sides. It is the irregular shape and cruder finish of this larger rectangle, bottom center, that indicated the likelihood of its having been linked by a ring to an analogous plaque, which is lost. Late Eastern Chou.

The surface incisions closely resemble that of No. 502.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop

Accession Year

1943

Object Number

1943.50.190

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, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1975), cat. no. 506, p. 342

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

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