Blade, recut

1. Bought from Lee Van Ching [Li Wenqing] 李文卿 of Shanghai 上海, in New York. For price, see Original Miscellaneous List, p. 247. $75.

2. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Original attribution: Chinese. Han 漢. See further, S.I. 1112, Appendix VIII.

3. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Sp. G. is 2.898.

4. (Archibald Gibson Wenley, 1945) Chou [Zhou] 周 dynasty. The pointed end has been ground down, probably due to a break and is not the original form; the perforation, too, may be of later date.

5. (Elisabeth West Fitzhugh, 1956) X ray diffraction analysis. Nephrite. Film F-162. April 18, 1956.

6. (Thomas Lawton, 1978) Western Chou [Zhou]. Two jade tablets of roughly similar shape, longer and narrower, with a more pronounced tapering point, have been unearthed from an Eastern Chou [Zhou] 周 site at Meng che [Mengshi] 盟誓, near Hou ma [Houma] 侯馬 in Shansi [Shanxi] 山西 province. See Kuo Mo-jo [Guo Moruo] 郭沫若, "Ch'u-t'u wen-wu erh-san-shih [Chutu wenwu ersanshi] 出土文物二三事," Wen wu [Wenwu] 文物 1972.3, pp. 4--7, pls. 1--2; T'ao Cheng-kang [Tao Zhenggang] 陶正剛 and Wang K'e-lin [Wang Kelin] 王克林, "Hou-ma Tung-chou Meng-shi i-chih [Houma Dongzhou Mengshi yizhi] 侯馬東周盟誓遺址," Wen wu [Wenwu] 文物 1972.4, p. 30, fig. 4, pl. 4:1. These are engraved with long inscriptions recording certain events which took place in the state of Chin [Jin] 晉 in the Eastern Chou [Zhou] 周 period. A somewhat earlier date for F1917.23 may be justified in view of the differences in the shape and the possibility that the excavated jade tablets might have been fashioned earlier than the date of the engraving of the inscriptions.

7. (Julia K. Murray, 1982) The long, pointed jade tablet exemplified by F1917.23 evolved from the ko [ge] 戈 dagger blade (see Folder Sheet F1917.396); it in turn led to the development of the proportionately broader and shorter pointed tablet popular through the Ch'ing [Qing] 清 (see F1916.496).

A tablet similar to F1917.23 in the Sonnenschein collection at the Art Institute of Chicago has been attributed to the 8th--7th century BCE (1950.320, Jessica Rawson and John Ayers, Chinese Jade throughout the Ages: An Exhibition organized by the Arts Council of Great Britain and the Oriental Ceramic Society [London: Oriental Ceramic Society, 1975], cat. 26).

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 blade" to "Ceremonial object." Title changed from "Ceremonial blade" to "Straight chisel (gui 圭)."

10. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, May 10, 2016) Period changed from Western Zhou dynasty to Late Neolithic period, with object date changed to ca. 1050-771 BCE to ca. 3000-1700 BCE. Title changed from Straight chisel (gui) to Blade, recut.

11. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, May 10, 2016) Comparanda: Art Institute of Chicago, 1950.320; Alfred Salmony, Archaic Chinese Jades from the Edward and Louise B. Sonnenschein Collection (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1952), pl. XXIX:1.