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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.50.198
Title
Jade Chape
Classification
Ritual Implements
Work Type
chape
Date
3rd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, China
Period
Warring States period (475-221 BCE) to Western Han period (206 BCE-9 CE)
Culture
Chinese
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/204900

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Light gray, brown, and dark brown translucent nephrite
Dimensions
6.1 x 4.1 x 1.7 cm (2 3/8 x 1 5/8 x 11/16 in.)
unspecified: 72 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. 456 by Max Loehr:

456 Chape
Light gray, brown, and dark brown translucent jade with a glistening surface. This surprisingly heavy piece has a trapezoidal outline with a symmetrical extrusion at the lower end. Its upper end is planar and smooth; it has a hole in the middle flanked by two small oblique perforations which connect with the one in the middle. The two main surfaces are decorated with vigorously moving animal figures in relief: a large and a small feline on one side, and a curled and twisted quadruped on the other side. The heads of two of the animals are seen en face , more or less, with a curious effect of foreshortening achieved through their unequally large eyes. In all of these animals the relief varies in accordance with the natural unevenness of the raw piece. The highly polished lateral edges, too, are of different widths; except for two shallow rectangular notches they are plain. Late Eastern Chou or Western Han.

The chape compares stylistically with the scabbard buckle, No. 457, so closely as to suggest that both items belonged with the same sword. Their jade material, however, though similar in character, differs in color.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.50.198
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. 456, p. 310

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