Object: Harvesting knife (hu 笏), fragment F1916.160

Classification: Ceremonial Object

Maker(s): Artist: Longshan culture 龍山 (ca. 3000-ca. 1700 BCE)

Historical period(s): Late Neolithic period, ca. 2000-1700 BCE

Object Date: ca. 2000-1700 BCE

Medium: Jade (nephrite)

Dimension(s): H x W x D: 49.2 x 8.4 x 0.5 cm (19 3/8 x 3 5/16 x 3/16 in)

Origin: China

Credit Line: Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Collection: Freer Gallery of Art Collection

Accession Number: F1916.160

: 笏（殘損）
新石器時代晚期（公元前5000--1700年）
中國西北
软玉
高49.2、寬8.4、厚0.5釐米
查爾斯·蘭·佛利爾贈送
器物編號：F1916.160

Provenance: To 1916
Lai-Yuan and Company, New York, to 1916 [1]

From 1916 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Lai-Yuan and Company in 1916 [2]

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

Notes:

[1] See Original Miscellaneous List, S.I. 873, pg. 188, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.

[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): Lai-Yuan & Company (C.L. Freer source) (ca. 1915-April 1921)
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

Description: Ceremonial implement; long, very thin blade form with sharp, beveled cutting edge; niched handle with perforation drilled from one side and cap shaped end; four circular perforations near upper edge drilled from another side; irregular cutting on one surface; translucent, light green with cloudy tan strata and scattered silvery incrustations and markings; high luster. (Break on upper edge, rough granular chips, blade edge minutely chipped.)

Acquired with a box, now lost.

Curatorial Remarks

1. Bought from Lai Yuan and Company 來遠公司, New York. For price, see Original Miscellaneous List, p. 188. $510.

2. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Original attribution: Chinese. "Ancient." See further, S.I. 873, Appendix VII.

3. (Archibald Gibson Wenley, 1946) Shang 商 dynasty. For discussion of type, see folder F1916.244, note 3 (Carl Whiting Bishop).

4. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Sp. G. is 2.938.

5. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Exhibited: The Art Institute of Chicago, Catalogue of a Loan Exhibition of Ancient Chinese Paintings, Sculptures, and Jade Objects from the Collection Formed by Charles Lang Freer (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1917), no. 115.

6. (Thomas Lawton, 1978) This blade has been sliced from a thicker blade. See F1919.53, a blade on which such a slicing into two has been begun but not carried through. See Max Loehr, Ancient Chinese Jades from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA: Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, 1975), cat. 213.

7. (Julia K. Murray, 1982) The horizontal blade F1916.160 has not only undergone recutting to create the niched handle at one end; it has also been sliced longitudinally somewhat unevenly and left un-finished on the sliced side. The stone is full of cracks and veinings.

For a further discussion see F1917.24.

8. (Stephen Allee per Keith Wilson, March 31, 2008) On this date entered: Period One (Late Neolithic period), Date (ca. 2500--2000 BCE), Artist (Qijia 齊家 culture), Title, Object name, Geographical region (Northwest China); plus Dimensions per Christine Lee, from Jade Project Database.

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

10. (Susan Kitsoulis per Keith Wilson, April 2, 2010) "Fragment" added to title.

Published References

Geoffrey WIlls. Jade of the East., 1st ed. New York, 1972. fig. 21.
Minao Hayashi. Chūgoku kogyoku no kenkyū. Tokyo, 1991. pl. 5.
Minao Hayashi. Chūgoku kodai no ishibōchōkei gyokki to kotsusenkei gyokki [Two Types of Prehistorical Chinese Ceremonial Jade Objects: Stone Harvesting Knives and Bone Spades]. no. 54, 1982. pl. 5.
J. Keith Wilson, Jingmin Zhang. Jades for Life and Death. .

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Harvesting knife (hu 笏), fragment

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