Jades for Life and Death

Classification: Ceremonial Object

Maker(s): Artist: Liangzhu culture 良渚 (ca. 3300-ca. 2250 BCE)

Historical period(s): Late Neolithic period, ca. 3300-2250 BCE

Object Date: ca. 3300-2250 BCE

Medium: Jade (nephrite)

Dimension(s): Diam x D: 21.9 x 1.6 cm (8 5/8 x 5/8 in) Diam (hole): 4.7 cm (1 7/8 in)

Origin: China, Lake Tai region

Credit Line: Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Collection: Freer Gallery of Art Collection

Accession Number: F1916.380

: 璧
新石器時代晚期良渚文化（公元前3300--2250年）
中國太湖地區
軟玉
直徑21.9、厚1.6釐米；孔徑4.7釐米
查爾斯·蘭·佛利爾贈送
器物編號：F1916.380

Provenance: To 1916
Wang Jiantang, Shanghai to 1916 [1]

From 1916 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Wang Jiantang 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. 1020, pg. 222, 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): Wang Jiantang 王鑑堂 (C.L. Freer source) (late 19th-early 20th century)
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

Description: Perforated disk of the type pi [bi] 璧; bored conically leaving ridge near edge; mottled rich greens with brown veins and silvery strata; some areas of white disintegration on obverse, more plentiful on reverse; proportions irregular. (Rim slightly chipped and one break.)

Acquired with a box, now lost.

Past label text: Ancient Chinese Jade, September 4, 1980–March 6, 1981; by Julia K. Murray (shown with F1917.83, F1917.354, F1918.25, F1917.350, F1919.19, F1919.85, F1917.347, F1918.28, F1916.505, F1919.30; additional disks of later periods shown in same case).

Curatorial Remarks

1. Bought from K. T. Wong [Wang Jiantang] 王鑑堂, Shanghai 上海. For price, see Original Miscellaneous List, p. 222. $455.

2. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Original attribution: Chinese. Han 漢. See further, S.I. 1020, Appendix VIII (see Paragraph 6).

3. (John Ellerton Lodge, 1922) Chou [Zhou] 周 dynasty.

4. (Isabel Ingram Mayer, 1945) Chou [Zhou] 周 dynasty.

5. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Sp. G. is 2.984. Nephrite.

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

7. (Thomas Lawton, 1978) Attribution changed from Chou [Zhou] 周 dynasty to Neolithic. See Folder Sheet for F1917.19.

8. (Julia K. Murray, 1983) ca. 2000 BCE is added to the date of Neolithic. See F1917.19 for a discussion of pi [bi] 璧.

9. (Stephen Allee per Keith Wilson, February 4, 2008) On this date entered: Period One (Late Neolithic period), Date (ca. 5000--ca. 1700 BCE), Artist (Liangzhu 良渚 culture), Title, Object name, Geographical region (Lake Tai 太湖 region); plus Description per Jenny F. So and Dimensions per Christine Lee, from Jade Project Database.

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

11. (Jeffrey Smith, April 14,2016) Transferred from Description: (Jenny So, from Jade Project Database) Coarse, inhomogeneous texture, mottled greens and browns with whitish alteration on one (rougher) face. Biconical perforation with ridge at rim of hole on other face, drilled off-center. Unevenly round, with one face (where ridge appears at rim of hole) virtually unaltered and very smooth--may have been result of the splitting and repolishing of a disk that was once much thicker (cf. F1917.354)

(File folder) Perforated disc of the type "bi." Bored conically leaving ridge near edge. Mottled rich greens with brown veins and silvery strata. Some areas of white disintergration on obverse, more plentiful on reverse. Proportions irregular. (Rim slightly chipped and one break). Box.
Neg. No. H374B1, S1829AE, S5991AA

Published References

Geoffrey WIlls. Jade of the East., 1st ed. New York, 1972. fig. 11.
J. Keith Wilson, Jingmin Zhang. Jades for Life and Death. .
Julia Murray. Neolithic Chinese Jades in the Freer Gallery of Art. vol. 14, no. 11 Hong Kong, November 1983. p. 15, fig. 1.

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Disk (bi 璧)

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