Pendant in the form of an archer’s thumbring with raised linked curls

1. Bought through C. T. Loo and Co., New York, from Chang Nai chi [Zhang Naiji] 張乃驥. For price, see  Freer Gallery of Art Purchase List After 1920.

2. (John Ellerton Lodge, 1939) See Folders F1939.6, Paragraph 2, and F1939.23, Paragraphs 3 and 4.

3. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Since the bore is too small to permit of this ring being worn on the thumb, a  reasonable supposition seems to be that it was made for burial with the dead, or even for use by the living, as an  ornament--perhaps symbolic.

4. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Specific gravity (weight) is 2.979. Nephrite.

5. (William B. Trousdale, 1964) Late Eastern Chou [Zhou] 周, or Warring States Period. The Shou Chou [Shou xian] 壽縣 provenance is unverifiable, but reasonable. The object is probably a plectrum for a stringed instrument.

6. (Undated Folder Sheet note) See F1939.23.

7. (Thomas Lawton, Chinese Art of the Warring States Period: Change and Continuity, 480--222  B.C. [Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1982], cat. no. 110) The oval shape of the piece is interrupted on the upper portion by two concave planes that form a point and an elegant curvilinear projection. The perforation, which occurs in the upper portion of the ring, is ovoid with a flattened segment at the bottom. Linked spirals modeled in low relief are incised on the shield shaped surface of the ring. The smoothly finished concave back surface is decorated with  incised, abstract curvilinear decoration; at the center is a long tailed bird seen in profile. A small hole is drilled through the concave plane at the top of the ring. The surface of the piece is highly polished.

The Freer ring traditionally is said to have come from Shou chou [Shou xian] 壽縣, Anhui 安徽 province. While that provenance is not verifiable, it is reasonable. [1] Also to be considered are those objects published by William Charles White as coming from Chin ts'un [Jincun] 金村, Honan [Henan] 河南 province. White illustrates two jade and 1 bone archer's rings; he also mentions that several other rings were found at the site but does not illustrate them. [2] Umehara Sueji 梅原末治 in Rakuyō Kinson kobo shūei includes a thumb ring similar to the Freer example. [3] That thumb ring, now in the Fogg Museum, is discussed by Max Loehr.[4]

The earliest Chinese archer's thumb ring now extant was unearthed in the Shang 商 dynasty tomb 5 an Anyang 安陽,  Honan [Henan] 河南 province, in 1975--76. An animal mask in low relief dominated the outer surface of that ring, with the stylized body of a fantastic creature curving around the remaining portions. [5] The sturdy proportions of the Anyang 安陽  thumb ring suggest that it was meant for actual use, while the small size of the aperture on the Freer rings indicates that the piece may have been purely ornamental. In 1955 one jade and 3 bone archer's rings of this general type were unearthed near the hands of skeletons in four separate tombs at the Chung chou lu [Zhongzhoulu] 中州路 site near  Loyang [Luoyang] 洛陽, Honan [Henan] 河南 province. [6]

Several jade pieces very similar in shape and decoration to the Freer example have been described as musical picks. [7]

[1] See Orvar Karlbeck, "Selected Objects from Ancient Shou-chou," Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, no. 27 (1955), pp. 41--130, pl. 62. Salmony includes the Freer piece in Chinese Jade through the Wei Dynasty (New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1963), pl. 17:1.

[2] William Charles White, Tombs of Old Lo Yang: A Record of the Construction and Contents of a group of Royal Tombs at Chin ts'un, probably dating to 550 B.C. (Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh Limited, 1934), pl. 138--39.

[3] Umehara Sueji 梅原末治, Rakuyō Kinson kobo shūei 洛陽金村古墓聚英 (Kyoto: Kobayashi shashin seihanjo shuppanbu, 1937), pl. 88:3.

[4] Max Loehr, Ancient Chinese Jades from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA: Fogg Art Museum, Havard University, 1975), p. 309, no. 452.

[5] Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan kaogu yanjiusuo 中國社會科學院考古研究所, Yinxu Fu Hao mu 殷墟婦好墓 (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1980), pp. 194--95, figs. 97a--b, pl. 164:3--4.

[6] Zhongguo kexueyuan kaogu yanjiusuo 中國科學院考古研究所, Luoyang Zhongzhoulu 洛陽中州路 (Beijing: Kexue chubanshe, 1959), pp. 115--24, figs. 82:8, 98:7, pls. 72:4, 80:10.

[7] An Exhibition of Chinese Archaic Jades, Arranged for Norton Gallery of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida, January 20 to March 1, 1950 (New York: C. T. Loo, Inc., 1950), pl. 49: 1, 3, 6--8.

8. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, July 1, 2008) "Jewelry" added as secondary classification.

9. (Stephen Allee, June 2, 2009) Corrected name of previous owner from Zhang Naiqi to Zhang Naiji 張乃驥 and added Chinese characters, as well as his life dates (1899--1948) and a brief biography.

10. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, August 23, 2023) Title changed from "Archer's thumbring (ban zhi)" to "Pendant in the form of an archer’s thumbring with raised linked curls"; Classification changed from "Tool and Equipment" to "Jewelry and Ornament"; Date changed from "ca. 5th-4th century BCE" to "475-221 BCE"; Geography Type Provenance added as "China, purportedly found at Anhui province, Shou xian"; Object Name changed from "Archer's thumbring" to "Pendant".