Jades for Life and Death

Classification: Ceremonial Object

Maker(s): Artist: Liangzhu culture 良渚 (ca. 3300-ca. 2250 BCE)

Historical period(s): Late Neolithic period, ca. 3300-2250 BCE

Object Date: ca. 3300-2250 BCE

Medium: Jade (nephrite)

Dimension(s): Diam x D: 17.5 x 1 cm (6 7/8 x 3/8 in)

Origin: China, Lake Tai region

Credit Line: Gift of Arthur M. Sackler

Collection: Arthur M. Sackler Collection

Accession Number: S1987.929

: 璧
新石器時代晚期良渚文化（公元前3300--2250年）
中國太湖地區
軟玉
直徑17.5、厚1釐米
亞瑟 M. 賽克勒贈送
器物編號：S1987.929

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

From 1963 to 1987
Dr. Arthur M. Sackler, New York, purchased from the Bahr Collection 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 #97: "Green brown mottled with come crystalline flakes. Uneven surface and pitted. Disk with centre hole. Modern cord for suspension. Jade?" 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)
Dr. Arthur M. Sackler (1913-1987)

Description: Disk with biconical central hole; green brown mottled with some crystalline flakes, uneven surface and pitted. Seven chips on outside rim, three small holes on surface, and three indentations on surface; surface rough and degraded on both sides.

Past label text: In Praise of Ancestors, September 28, 1987–January 5, 1989; by Thomas Lawton (shown with S1987.453, S1987.924, S1987.743, S1987.887, S1987.468)
Bi 璧, Ritual Disk
Ca. 2500 BCE, Late Neolithic period
Jade

Curatorial Remarks

1. (Stephen Allee per Keith Wilson, March 3, 2008) On this date entered: Period One (Late Neolithic period), Date (ca. 5000--ca. 1700 BCE), Artist (Liangzhu 良渚 culture), Title, Object name, Geographical region (Lake Tai 太湖 region); plus Description per Jenny F. So and Dimensions per Christine Lee, from Jade Project Database.

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

3. (Jeffrey Smith per Janet Douglas, June 17, 2010) Nephrite added as modifier to existing medium of "jade" based on conservation analysis.

4. (Jeffrey Smith, April 13, 2016) Transferred from Description: (Jenny So, from Jade Project Database) Irregularly rounded and of uneven thickness. Biconical hole with ridge near the edge of the hole on one face; circular turn marks. Curved slice marks on both faces, both polished smooth.

Published References

J. Keith Wilson, Jingmin Zhang. Jades for Life and Death. .
David Summers. Real Spaces: World Art History and the Rise of Western Modernism. New York, 2003. p. 116, fig. 39.

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Disk (bi 璧)

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