Jades for Life and Death

Classification: Ceremonial Object

Historical period(s): Anyang period, Late Shang dynasty, ca. 1250-ca. 1050 BCE

Object Date: ca. 1250-ca. 1050 BCE

Medium: Jade (nephrite)

Dimension(s): H x W x D: 12.5 × 2.2 × 0.4 cm (4 15/16 × 7/8 × 3/16 in)

Origin: China, probably Henan province, Anyang

Credit Line: Gift of Arthur M. Sackler

Collection: Arthur M. Sackler Collection

Accession Number: S1987.493

: 柄形器
晚商安陽時期（公元前1250--1050年）
中國，疑似河南安陽市
軟玉
高12.5、寬2.2、厚0.4釐米
亞瑟·M·賽克勒贈送
器物編號：S1987.493

Provenance: To 1959
Abel William Bahr (1877-1959), Shanghai, China, London, England, Montreal, Canada, New York, NY, and Ridgefield, Connecticut [1]

From 1959 to 1963
Edna H. Bahr (d. 1978), by descent from her father, Abel William Bahr

From 1963 to 1987
Dr. Arthur M. Sackler, New York, purchased from Edna H. Bahr in 1963 [2]

From 1987
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, gift of Dr. Arthur M. Sackler on September 11, 1987 [3]

Notes:

[1] According to information provided by the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, October 9, 2009.

[2] See #281: "mottled green and tan," on list provided by the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, October 9, 2009, copy in object file.

[3] Pursuant to the agreement between Dr. Arthur M. Sackler and the Smithsonian Institution, dated July 28, 1982, legal title of the donated objects was transferred to the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery on September 11, 1987.

Previous owner(s): Abel William Bahr (1877-1959)
Edna H. Bahr (1907-1986)
Dr. Arthur M. Sackler (1913-1987)

Description: Handle, pierced; mottled cream and green. (Generally calcified; deposits, cinnabar.)

Past label text: 1. (Keith Wilson, Anyang: China's Ancient City of Kings, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, February 25, 2023 to April 28, 2024)

Tablet
Anyang period, ca. 1250–1050 BCE
Jade (nephrite)
Gift of Arthur M. Sackler S1987.671

Tablet
Anyang period, ca. 1250–1050 BCE
Jade (nephrite)
Purchase—Charles Lang Freer Endowment F1939.31

Tablet
Anyang period, ca. 1250–1050 BCE
Jade (nephrite)
Gift of Arthur M. Sackler S1987.493

Tablet
Anyang period, ca. 1250–1050 BCE
Marble
The Dr. Paul Singer Collection of Chinese Art of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; a joint gift of the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, Paul singer, the AMS Foundation for the arts, sciences, and humanities, and the children of Arthur M. Sackler S2012.9.283

Tablet
Anyang period, ca. 1250–1050 BCE
Jade (nephrite)
Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1915.234

Ritual in the Afterlife
The contents of Anyang tombs reveal the need to continue rituals in the afterlife. In addition to bronze food and wine containers, stone handle-shaped objects like the five seen here are sometimes found inscribed with the honorific names used for deceased ancestors, suggesting they played a role in spiritual offerings. Other objects may have been specifically created for burial, like miniature, unfinished, and fragmentary jade dagger-axes; along with thin, impractical bronze examples, they offered symbolic protection. Both human and animal sacrifice also feature regularly in Anyang tombs, and a small bronze collar bell is often found with the skeleton of a dog buried directly below the main tomb occupant. Such funerary goods exhibit the same surface patterns found on other Anyang ritual objects.

Curatorial Remarks

1. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, July 17, 2008) Ceremonial object added as secondary classification.

2. (Susan Kitsoulis per Keith Wilson, April 20, 2010) Object Name changed from "Handle" to "Ceremonial object."
Title changed from "Handle" to "Ancestor tablet."

3. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, August 3, 2017) Object name changed from "Ceremonial Object" to "Tablet"; period one changed from "Shang dynasty" to "Late Shang dynasty"; period two added "Anyang period"; date changed from "ca. 1200-1000 BCE" to "ca. 1300-ca. 1050 BCE"; geography changed from "China" to "China, probably Henan province, Anyang"; medium changed from "Jade" to "Jade (nephrite)".

4. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, December 13, 2018) Added Chinese translation by Jingmin Zhang; and added the following to the Description field, "Handle, pierced; mottled cream and green. (Generally calcified; deposits, cinnabar.)"
5. (YinYing Chen per Keith Wilson, February 13, 2023) Change title from "Ancestor tablet" to "Tablet." Change object name from "Tablet" to "Ritual object: Tablet." Change date from "ca. 1300-ca. 1050 BCE" to "ca. 1250-ca. 1050 BCE." Change date from "公元前1300-1050年" to "公元前1250-1050年" in the translation field.

Published References

J. Keith Wilson, Jingmin Zhang. Jades for Life and Death. .

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Tablet

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