1943.50.237: Jade Bird Figure in Openwork
Ritual ImplementsThe bird figure faces left as its neck and body curl around ending in swirl tipped feathers. It’s hooked beak is slightly open, its carved round eye looks straight ahead facing left in profile. Simple details and spots of crossed hatched texture are carved into the surface. It’s a milky light green-grey color with browns along some of the tips and bottom edge on lower left. It has two small holes, one at the top center curl, the other at the lower left curl.
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
- 1943.50.237
- Title
- Jade Bird Figure in Openwork
- 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/205037
Location
- Location
-
Level 1, Room 1740, Early Chinese Art, Arts of Ancient China from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age
Physical Descriptions
- Medium
- Highly polished, light gray translucent nephrite with marginal brown markings
- Dimensions
-
H. 2.2 x W. 4.5 x Thickness 0.3 cm (7/8 x 1 3/4 x 1/8 in.)
Weight 4 g
Provenance
- Recorded Ownership History
- Grenville L. Winthrop, New York (by 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. 415 by Max Loehr:
415 Bird Figure in Openwork
Highly polished, light gray translucent jade with marginal brown markings and stains of bronze oxide. The bird’s head is adorned with a long plume that rests on his wings, while his open, pointed beak touches his breast. The wings and the tail form ornamentally conceived bands ending in volutes. Surface patterns of incised concentric curves, striae, and crosshatching. Identical design on both sides. Later Eastern Chou.
Acquisition and Rights
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
- Accession Year
- 1943
- Object Number
- 1943.50.237
- 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 (Cambridge, MA, Fogg Art Museum, 1975)., cat. no. 415, p. 284
- Jenny So, Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2019), pp. 236, 238, fig. 2
Exhibition History
- 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