1. Bought from Lai-Yuan and Company 來遠公司, New York. For price, see Original Miscellaneous List, p. 190. $310.
2. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Original attribution: Chinese. "Ancient." See further, S.I. 876, Appendix VII.
3. (John Ellerton Lodge, 1940) Early Chou [Zhou] 周.
4. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Sp. G. is 2.912.
5. (Archibald Gibson Wenley, 1946) Shang 商 dynasty. For discussion of type see folder F1916.244 (Carl Whiting Bishop), note 3.
6. (Thomas Lawton, 1978) This blade has been sliced from a thicker blade and has the original high polish only on one side. 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. 205.
7. (Julia K. Murray, 1982) The blade is noticeably sharper on F1916.163 than on many jades of the horizontal knife shape. Hayashi Minao believes that the longitudinal slicing of jades into thinner slabs was carried out in ancient times to make them into matching tallies of official authority. (See his article, Hayashi Minao 林巳奈夫, "Chūgoku kodai no ishibōchōkei gyokki to kotsusenkei gyokki 中國古代の石庖丁形玉器と骨鏟形玉器 = Two Types of Prehistorical Chinese Ceremonial Jade Objects: Stone Harvesting Knives and Bone Spades," Tōhō gakuhō 東方學報 54 [1982], pp. 1--81). Hayashi illustrates two blades in the Fogg that actually match each other (pl. 1).
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), Title, Object name, Geographical region (Northwest China); plus Dimensions per Christine Lee, from Jade Project Database.
9. (Stephen Allee, June 11, 2008) Added designation "nephrite" to Medium as per Wen Guang 聞廣 in June 1997, as determined by infrared spectroscopy.
10. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, July 17, 2008) Ceremonial object added as secondary classification.
The information presented on this website may be revised and updated at any time as ongoing research progresses or as otherwise warranted. Pending any such revisions and updates, information on this site may be incomplete or inaccurate or may contain typographical errors. Neither the Smithsonian nor its regents, officers, employees, or agents make any representations about the accuracy, reliability, completeness, or timeliness of the information on the site. Use this site and the information provided on it subject to your own judgment. The National Museum of Asian Art welcomes information that would augment or clarify the ownership history of objects in their collections..