1943.50.119: Ornate Jade Handle
Ritual ImplementsThe jade handle is long and narrow in shape and shown vertically on a black background. The handle is pale green in color with some dark green discoloration throughout. The top point is flat and smaller in width and the bottom point is slightly wider. The bottom point is a simple, geometric shape. There are large carved curved lines along the sides that go down and outward.
Gallery Text
The Shang refined Neolithic jade-making practices, fashioning ritual blades and implements of even greater sophistication than those of their predecessors, incorporating jade blades into turquoise-inlaid bronze hafts, and expanding their jade repertoire into representational shapes of humans and animals.
Identification and Creation
- Object Number
- 1943.50.119
- Title
- Ornate Jade Handle
- Classification
- Ritual Implements
- Work Type
- handle
- Date
- 12th-11th century BCE
- Places
- Creation Place: East Asia, China
- Period
- Shang dynasty (c. 1600-c. 1050 BCE) to Western Zhou period (c. 1050-771 BCE)
- Culture
- Chinese
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/205226
Location
- Location
-
Level 1, Room 1740, Early Chinese Art, Arts of Ancient China from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age
Physical Descriptions
- Medium
- Dark bluish green, largely discolored nephrite
- Dimensions
-
H. 12.7 x W. 2.6 x Thickness 0.4 cm (5 x 1 x 3/16 in.)
Weight 28 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. 113 by Max Loehr:
113 Ornate Handle
Dark bluish green, largely discolored jade. The handle is similar to No, 112, but its body is flat, and the tiers of leaves or scales are five in number. The tectiform bar on top is ground down to a thin edge. Shang.
Acquisition and Rights
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
- Accession Year
- 1943
- Object Number
- 1943.50.119
- 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. 113, p. 107
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