Slice of a "Cong" Cylinder | Harvard Art Museums

Identification and Creation

Object Number: 1943.50.107
Title: Slice of a "Cong" Cylinder
Classification: Ritual Implements
Work Type: plaque, ritual
Date: Late 3rd or early 2nd millennium BCE
Places: Creation Place: East Asia, China
Period: Neolithic period
Culture: Chinese
Persistent Link: https://hvrd.art/o/204996

Physical Descriptions

Medium: Translucent light green nephrite with opaque buff clouds; southeast Neolithic piece modified in the northwest
Dimensions: L. 14.5 x W. 5.1 cm (5 11/16 x 2 in.)
Weight 69 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. 238 by Max Loehr:

238 Fragment Shaped like the Side of a Ts’ung
Thin tablet of translucent light green jade with opaque buff clouds, apparently the reworked remnant of a thin-bodied ts’ung. At the top, the tablet shows a short segment of the projecting cylinder wall; at the left side is a sequence of seven décor units with one short and two long relief bands separated by notches, similar to No. 236. At the right side of the edge has been cut off. Near the top of the central channel is a conical perforation drilled from the back. The back shows a vertical furrow in the center, a flat plane to the left, and to the right, where the original edge is intact, a rounded slope. The table has a perfunctorily executed, convex bottom edge. Late Western Chou.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

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

Accession Year

1943

Object Number

1943.50.107

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. 238, p. 183
Jenny So, Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2019), p. 81, fig. 6

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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