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A flat blade carved from ivory colored jade

The blade has a spine that extends down the middle and to the tip where the two sides curve inward to a point. Two broad facets on either side of the spine are beveled thinner along the edge almost to the tip. On the end opposite the point, the tang is slightly narrower than the blade, and at one fourth the length, much shorter, and its end has eight small serrations that stick outward from its edge. Several small circular holes cave been cut where a handle was once attached to the tang, and some terra cotta colored residue remains there.

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
1943.50.54
Title
Heavy Jade Dagger-Axe with Serrate Tang
Classification
Ritual Implements
Work Type
dagger-axe
Date
12th-10th 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/205297

Location

Location
Level 1, Room 1740, Early Chinese Art, Arts of Ancient China from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Gray-green nephrite with lighter markings; some reddish earth and cinnabar remain on the left side
Dimensions
L. 34.2 x W. 8 x Thickness 0.9 cm (13 7/16 x 3 1/8 x 3/8 in.)
Weight 370 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. 41 by Max Loehr:

41 Heavy Dagger-Axe with Serrate Tang
Gray-green jade with lighter markings; some reddish earth and cinnabar remain on the left side. Well proportioned, smooth blade of exemplary workmanship. The crested blade is beveled along the upper and lower edges; the bevels end in a delicately ground, outward-curving ledge. The tip of the blade is not beveled but has sloping faces. The flattened tang is decorated with four pairs of teeth which project from the butt. A large conical perforation in the blade, drilled from the right side; two curiously placed similar perforations in the butt, one biconical and the other drilled from the left side. Shang or early Western Chou.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.50.54
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, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1975), cat. no. 41, p. 60
  • Jenny So, Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2019), pp. 122-24, fig. 1

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