Object: Harvesting knife (hu 笏), fragment F1917.30

Classification: Ceremonial Object

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

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: 18.3 × 7.3 × 0.7 cm (7 3/16 × 2 7/8 × 1/4 in)

Origin: China

Credit Line: Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Collection: Freer Gallery of Art Collection

Accession Number: F1917.30

: 笏（殘損）
新石器時代晚期（公元前5000--1700年）
中國
軟玉
高7.3、寬18.3、厚0.7釐米
查爾斯·蘭·佛利爾贈送
器物編號：F1917.30

Provenance: To 1917
Li Wenqing (late 19th-early 20th century), Shanghai, to 1917 [1]

From 1917 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Li Wenqing, in New York, in 1917 [2]

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

Notes:

[1] See Original Miscellaneous List, S.I. 1119, pg. 249, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. See also, Voucher No. 18, December 1916.

[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): Li Wenqing 李文卿 (C.L. Freer source) (ca. 1869-1931)
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

Description: Long, slender chisel shaped object of the type kuei [gui] 圭; one short and one long edge beveled; one large and one small conical perforation near each end; dull olive gray with light and dark undersurface specks; one short edge rough and unfinished. (Slightly chipped.)

Acquired with a box, now lost.

Curatorial Remarks

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. 249. $40.

2. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Original attribution: Chinese. Han 漢. See further, S.I. 1119, Appendix VIII (see Paragraph 5).

3. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Sp. G. is 2.946.

4. (Archibald Gibson Wenley, 1945) Chou [Zhou] 周 dynasty.

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

6. (Thomas Lawton, 1973) The following information was carved on the box in which this object arrived: Chou mei [Zhou Mei] 周口.

7. (Thomas Lawton, 1978) Late Shang 商--Early Western Chou [Zhou] 周.

8. (Julia K. Murray, 1982) The blade F1917.30 is unusual in having two sharpened edges which meet at right angles. From the placement of the two perforations and the beveling of the long edge, it seems possible that the blade was originally intended as a jade replica of the horizontal harvesting knife (see the large knife that was excavated at Erh li t'ou [Erlitou] 二里頭, Yen shih [Yanshi] 偃師, Honan [Henan] 河南 from Early Shang 商 remains; in Robert W. Bagley, "The Beginnings of the Bronze Age: The Erlitou Culture Period," in The Great Bronze Age of China: An Exhibition from The People's Republic of China, ed. Wen Fong (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1980), cat. 3. If so, then the blade broke and was refinished by beveling the broken short end to a sharp edge, like an axe. (For a general discussion of jade axes, see Folder Sheet F1918.35.) This explanation is tentative, however. A similar piece is in the Chicago Art Institute (1950.312, reproduced in Alfred Salmony, Archaic Chinese Jades from the Edward and Louise B. Sonnenschein Collection [Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1952], pl. XXVI:3).

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

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

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

12. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, April 21, 2016) Period changed from Shang or Western Zhou dynasty with object date of ca. 1600-771 BCE to Late Neolithic period with object date of ca. 5000-ca. 1700 BCE.

Published References

J. Keith Wilson, Jingmin Zhang. Jades for Life and Death. .

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Harvesting knife (hu 笏), fragment

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