Object: Harvesting knife (hu 笏), fragment F1916.161

Classification: Ceremonial Object

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

Object Date: ca. 2000-ca. 1700 BCE

Medium: Jade (nephrite)

Dimension(s): H x W x D: 48.2 × 9.2 × 0.4 cm (19 × 3 5/8 × 3/16 in)

Origin: China

Credit Line: Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Collection: Freer Gallery of Art Collection

Accession Number: F1916.161

: 笏（殘損）
新石器時代晚期（公元前5000--1700年）
軟玉
高9.2、寬48.2、厚0.4釐米
查爾斯·蘭·佛利爾贈送
器物編號：F1916.161

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. 874, pg. 189, 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, thin blade form with beveled cutting edge, four conical perforations drilled from same side and niched handle; mottled brownish green with area of tan veins and a strip of translucent lighter green along cutting edge; smooth surface. (End broken, chips.)

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. 189. $510.

2. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Original attribution: Chinese. "Ancient." See further, S.I. 874, 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 2.951.

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. 114.

6. (Thomas Lawton, 1978) 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), cats. 211 and 212.

7. (Julia K. Murray, 1982) While some horizontal blades have been refinished along both edges of one of the short ends to create a grip for holding the blade vertically, F1916.161 is cut out only on one edge. The breakage at the other end of the blade does not appear to be related to the cutout process.

For a discussion of type see F1917.24.

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

9. (Susan Kitsoulis per Keith Wilson, April 2, 2010) Object name changed from "Ceremonial implement" to "Ceremonial object"; title changed from "Ceremonial implement" to "Harvesting knife (hu 笏), fragment."

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

11. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, April 21, 2016) Period changed from Shang dynasty with object date ca. 1600-1050 BCE to Late Neolithic period, with object date ca. 5000-ca.1700 BCE.

Published References

J. Keith Wilson, Jingmin Zhang. Jades for Life and Death. .
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. p. 41, fig. 42.
Minao Hayashi. Chūgoku kogyoku no kenkyū. Tokyo, 1991. p. 477, fig. 6: 74.

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Harvesting knife (hu 笏), fragment

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