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: 18 × 2.3 × 0.8 cm (7 1/16 × 7/8 × 5/16 in)

Origin: China, probably Henan province, Anyang

Credit Line: Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Collection: Freer Gallery of Art Collection

Accession Number: F1915.234

: 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17.8、寬2.3、厚0.8釐米
查爾斯·蘭·佛利爾赠送
器物編號：F1915.234

Provenance: To 1915
Abel William Bahr (1877-1959), Shanghai, China, London, England, Montreal, Canada, New York, New York, and Ridgefield, Connecticut to 1915 [1]

From 1915 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Abel William Bahr in 1915 [2]

From 1920
The Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]

Notes:

[1] See Original Miscellaneous List, S.I. 761, pg. 168, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Abel William Bahr (1877-1959) was a collector and dealer born in Shanghai, China. After he left Shanghai in 1910, he lived, at various points in time, in London, Montreal, and Ridgefield, Connecticut. He established a gallery in New York City in 1920.

[2] See note 1.

[3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.

Previous owner(s): Abel William Bahr (C.L. Freer source) (1877-1959)
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

Description: Handle; dagger shaped; semitranslucent, cream white with gray areas on one side; slight earth incrustations; decoration: incised lines. (End broken and cracked.)

Acquired with a box, now lost.

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. Bought from Abel William Bahr, New York. For price, see Original Miscellaneous List, p. 168.

2. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Original attribution: Chou [Zhou] 周. See further, S.I. 761, Appendix VII.

3. (Archibald Gibson Wenley, 1945) Shang 商 dynasty.

4. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Sp. G. is 2.957. Cracks and earth incrustation prevent more accurate calculations for nephrite.

5. (H. Elise Buckman, 1964) The Envelope File contained no further information, and has now been destroyed.

6. (Thomas Lawton, 1978) Late Shang 商.

7. (Julia K. Murray, 1981) Hayashi Minao 林巳奈夫 reproduces a similar piece (although with more surface decoration), which he calls a "ta-kuei [Da gui] 大圭", and which he describes as a handle to be used together with a type of cup called "tsan [zan] 瓚 " in libation ceremonies.

See Hayashi Minao 林巳奈夫, "In, Sei Shū jidai reiki no reibetsu to yōhō 殷、西周時代禮器の類別と用法 = The Classification and uses of Shang and Western Chou ritual bronze vessels," Tōhō gakuhō 東方學報 53 (1981), p. 14, fig. 7, and text pp. 13--15.

(Hayashi 林 does acknowledge the difficulty of explaining why so many jade "handles" but no corresponding cups have been found--a circumstance that casts doubt on the theory).

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

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

10. (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"; Medium changed from "Jade" to "Jade (nephrite)"; date changed from "ca. 1600-1050 BCE" to "ca. 1300-ca. 1050 BCE".

11. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, December 12, 2018) Added Chinese Translation by Jingmin Zhang; removed the following from the Description field, "Implement in the shape of a handle; dagger shaped; semi-translucent, cream white with gray areas on one side; slight earth incrustations; decoration: incised lines. (End broken and cracked). Box." Added the following to the Description field, "Handle; dagger shaped; semitranslucent, cream white with gray areas on one side; slight earth incrustations; decoration: incised lines. (End broken and cracked.) Acquired with a box, now lost."
12. (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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