Jades for Life and Death

Classification: Ceremonial Object

Historical period(s): Anyang period, Late Shang dynasty, ca. 1300-ca. 1050 BCE

Object Date: ca. 1300-ca. 1050 BCE

Medium: Jade (nephrite)

Dimension(s): H x W x D: 1.3 × 21.4 × 0.5 cm (1/2 × 8 7/16 × 3/16 in)

Origin: China, probably Henan province, Anyang

Credit Line: Gift of Arthur M. Sackler

Collection: Arthur M. Sackler Collection

Accession Number: S1987.646

: 晚商安陽時期（公元前1300-1050年）
中國，疑似河南安陽市
軟玉
高1.3、寬21.4、厚0.5釐米
亞瑟·M·賽克勒贈送
器物編號：S1987.646

Provenance: By 1958 to 1959
Diedrich Abbes (1866-1959), Greenwich, Connecticut [1]

1959 to 1987
Dr. Arthur M. Sackler, New York, purchased from the estate of Diedrich Abbes on July 10, 1959 through Frank Caro, C. T. Loo Chinese Art, New York [2]

From 1987
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, gift of Dr. Arthur M. Sackler in 1987 [3]

Notes:

[1] Diedrich Abbes' ownership indicated in the posthumously published, Alfred Salmony, Chinese Jade Through the Wei Dynasty. New York: Ronald Press Company, 1963, plate 3, no. 2. The introduction to the text notes that Salmony had completed the book manuscript before his death in 1958. The attribution to Diedrich Abbes, however, cites him as W. Dietrich Abbes rather than as Dietrich Abbes.

[2] See note on Arthur M. Sackler, M.D. letterhead acknowledging the "purchase and receipt of 17 pieces of stone carvings of the Shang,Yin-Chou and Chou periods from the Dietrich-Abbes collection. The price in full, exclusive of commission, will be paid as indicated by this note in two installments," copy in object file. See also letter to Frank Caro from Arnold J. Bai of the law firm Goldstein and Peck, Bridgeport Connecticut, September 28, 1960, copy in object file. The letter asks Frank Caro to have (presumably) his client, Arthur M. Sackler, to send the final payment for the Diedrich Abbes Collection of jades to the law firm. Goldstein and Peck mistakenly identify Mr. Caro's business as C. T. Loo Company, when it was called C. T. Loo Chinese Art.

[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): C.T. Loo Chinese Art (1953-1961)
Frank Caro (1904-1980)
Diedrich Abbes (1866-1959)
Dr. Arthur M. Sackler (1913-1987)

Description: Knife blade; single edged, flared toward point, with triangular cross-section; opaque gray with white clouds. (Mostly calcified; some nicks into powdery areas.)

Past label text: 1. In Praise of Ancestors, September 28, 1987–January 5, 1989; by Thomas Lawton (shown with S1987.699, S1987.702, S1987.700, S1987.717, S1987.706, S1987.646, and S1987.648)

Knife (Dao)
13th–11th centuries BCE
Shang dynasty
China
Jade

Curatorial Remarks

1. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Compare the long narrow jade blade, as well as those fashioned of bone, with those from the Shang 商 dynasty, Tomb 5, at Anyang 安陽, unearthed in 1976. See 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), pls. 126: 1 and 182: 2.

2. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, July 8, 2008) Weapon and Armament added as secondary classification.

3. (Susan Kitsoulis per Keith Wilson, April 2, 2010) Object name changed from "Weapon: knife" to "Ceremonial object."

4. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, August 21, 2017) Title changed from "Knife (dao)" to "Knife (dao 刀)"; Period One changed from "Shang dynasty" to "Late Shang dynasty"; Period Two added "Anyang period"; Geography changed from "China, probably Henan province, Anyang"; Date changed from "ca. 13th-11th century BCE" to "ca. 1300-ca. 1050 BCE"; Dimensions changed from "H x W x D: 21.4 x 1.3 x 0.5 cm (8 7/16 x 1/2 x 3/16 in)" to "H x W x D: 1.3 × 21.4 × 0.5 cm (1/2 × 8 7/16 × 3/16 in)"; and Medium changed from "Jade" to "Jade (nephrite)".

5. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, February 15, 2019) Added Chinese Translation by Jingmin Zhang; added the following to the Description field, "Knife blade; single edged, flared toward point, with triangular cross-section; opaque gray with white clouds. (Mostly calcified; some nicks into powdery areas.)"; and added past Label Text by Thomas Lawton from the exhibition, In Praise of Ancestors.

Published References

Alfred Salmony. Chinese Jade Through the Wei Dynasty. New York, 1963. plate 3, no. 2.
J. Keith Wilson, Jingmin Zhang. Jades for Life and Death. .

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Knife (dao 刀)

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