Sword scabbard slide with raised domes arranged in a grid

• 1. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, July 29, 2008) Jewelry and Ornament added as secondary classification.

  2. (Daisy Yiyou Wang, July 15, 2013) Title changed from "Scabbard slide" to "Sword scabbard slide with knobs";
  Period One added "Late Eastern Zhou 周 dynasty" to "Eastern Zhou 周 dynasty, late Warring States period."

  The slide has a superb translucency, and the designs are crisply executed. The lustrous surface of the scabbard  slide is well preserved. There is some reddish substance particularly in areas that have been worked and abraded.

  For a discussion of excavated comparable pieces from Changsha area, see Hunan sheng bowuguan
  湖南省博物馆 et al., Changsha chumu 长沙楚墓 (Beijing: Wenwu  chubanshe, 2000), Vol. 1: pp. 344--47, fig. 277; Vol. 2: pl. 108. The majority of the group of slides were found in  tombs dated to the late Warring States period. The scabbard slide (M1113:1) compares favorably with S2012.9.754 in format and design. The scabbard  slide (M894:3) is also published in Yang Boda 楊伯達, ed., Zhongguo jinyin boli  falangqi quanji: boliqi 中國金銀玻璃琺瑯器：玻璃器 (Shijiazhuang: Hebei meishu chubanshe, 2004), Vol. 4, pp. 10, 20; cat. no. 28. It is noted that when it was excavated, it was found on the middle section of an iron sword, next to the sword hilt. It is proposed that this slide was a functional rather than a funerary object.

  3. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, February 23, 2024) Title changed from "Sword scabbard slide with knobs" to "Sword scabbard slide with raised domes arranged in a grid"; Date changed from "4th-3rd century BCE" to "475 BCE-9 CE"; Period One changed from "Eastern Zhou dynasty, late Warring States period" to "Eastern Zhou dynasty or Western Han dynasty"; Period Two as "Warring States period"; Geography changed from "China" to "China, possibly Hunan province, Changsha or Kingdom of Chu"; added Chinese caption by Jingmin Zhang; and added Unpublished Research by Doris Dohrenwend.
  

Draft catalogue entry (no. 449) for S2012.9.754 for the catalogue of the Singer collection (1970--1990); by Doris Dohrenwend
Scabbard Slide
Late Eastern Zhou 周 dynasty, 4th--3rd century BCE
Glass
Length 6.6 cm (2 1/2 in)

This fine slide of semitranslucent white glass was molded with five rows of twenty nodules each in a sunken field. The area over the slot is further depressed, perhaps due to a slight sinking of the still pliable material over the  void, recalling a suggestion that the surface ornamentation of the scabbard slides was probably "pressed into the  cooling glass with a die." [1]

The rectangular field has raised edges. The ends of the fitting are turned under more or less equally. The slot  interior has rounded ends, while the exterior frame is trapezoidal. With its neat little bumps, the face is still shiny,  but the rest of the slide is matte, its white tone warmer due to contact with something like a mixture of earth and red powder.

Dr. Paul Singer attributes this piece to the Changsha 長沙 area, Hunan 湖南 province, where many such sword fittings of glass have been unearthed. [2] 

[1] William Trousdale, Long Sword and Scabbard Slide in Asia (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1975), in Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology, Vol. 17, p. 173.

[2] See Yang Boda 楊伯達, et al, Zhongguo meishu quanji: Jinyin boli falang qi 中國美術全集：金銀玻璃琺瑯器, Vol. 10 (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1987), pl. 206, p. 62.