Bracelet

• 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. 269. $150.

  2. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Original attribution: Chinese. Han 漢. See further, S.I. 1168, Appendix VIII.

  3. (Isabel Ingram Mayer, 1945) Chou [Zhou] 周 dynasty. For discussion of type, see Folder F1939.14, note 3.

  4. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Sp. G. is 2.947.

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

  6. (Thomas Lawton, 1978) Attribution changed from Chou [Zhou] 周 to Ch'ing [Qing] 清.

  7. (Stephen Allee per Keith Wilson, February 8, 2008) On this date entered: Period One (Late Neolithic period), Date (3300--2250 BCE), Artist (Liangzhu 良渚 culture), Title, Object name, Geographical region (Lake Tai 太湖 region); plus Dimensions per Christine Lee, from Jade Project Database.

  8. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, July 29, 2008) Ceremonial object added as secondary classification.

  9. (Jeffrey Smith per Janet Douglas, July 21, 2010) Nephrite added as modifier to existing medium of "jade" based on conservation analysis.

  10. (Susan Kitsoulis per label text from exhibition of Ancient Chinese Jades and Bronzes, Freer Gallery of Art, November 20, 2010) Changed from "Liangzhu 良渚 culture" to "Probably Longshan 龍山 Culture"; date changed from "ca. 3300--2250 BCE" to "ca. 2000--1700 BCE."

  11. (Susan Kitsoulis per Keith Wilson, December 2, 2010) Title changed from "Ring (yuan 瑗)" to "Bracelet."

  12. . (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, May 10, 2016) Object date changed from ca. 2000-1700 BCE to ca. 3000-1700 BCE.

Draft catalogue entry for F1917.81; by Jenny F. So (2003)

Ring-Bracelet
Neolithic period, ca. 3000--2500 BCE
Lower Yellow or Yangzi 揚子 river valleys
Nephrite, translucent yellow-green with golden-tan streaks
Diameter 13.88--14.04 cm; hole 6.86--7.00 cm; thickness 0.51 cm
F1917.81

An irregularly round disk is made from a fine-grained translucent nephrite. The faces for the disk are unevenly ground but taper to an almost sharply honed edge. The slightly convex walls of the central perforation suggest that it was drilled from both faces and finished smooth.

Such rings with lens-shaped cross-sections have often been associated with northeast China and classified as pendants because it would seem cumbersome and impractical to wear it any other way. [1] However, excavations of Neolithic burials across east China have consistently turned up similar rings worn around the wrists of the buried, so that their function as bracelets cannot be disputed. The adult male occupant of M20 at Huating 花廳 wore three such lens-shaped ring bracelets on his wrist. [2] The openings on the rings are all over six centimeters. These lens-shaped bracelets were recovered with cylindrical and round bracelets in the other graves at Huating 花廳 demonstrating that these different shaped bracelets were used concurrently during the third millennium BCE.

[1] See Yang Meili 楊美莉, "Xuanzi you huan, qiyi zai zhengshang: Gudai xibei diqu de huanxingyu, shiqi xilie zhi wu: Lianhuanxing yuqi yu xibei diqu de yuqi qiege 宣子有環其一在鄭商：古代西北地區的環形玉、石器系列之五：聯環形玉器與西北地區的玉器切割," Gugong wenwu yuekan 故宮文物月刊 = The National Palace Museum Monthly of Chinese Art 138 (1994), pp. 62--75, for a detailed discussion of northwestern rings in jade.

[2] Nanjing bowuyuan 南京博物院, "1987 nian Jiangsu Xinyi Huating yizhi de fajue 1987年江蘇新沂花廳遺址的發掘," Wenwu 文物 1990.2, p. 6, fig. 27:12--13, pl. 4:3, 5.

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