Jades for Life and Death

Classification: Jewelry and Ornament

Historical period(s): Late Neolithic period, ca. 3000-1700 BCE

Object Date: ca. 3000-1700 BCE

Medium: Jade (nephrite)

Dimension(s): Diam x D: 11.4 × 2.3 cm (4 1/2 × 7/8 in) Diam (hole): 8 cm (3 1/8 in)

Origin: China

Credit Line: Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Collection: Freer Gallery of Art Collection

Accession Number: F1918.29

: 手鐲
新石器時代晚期 (公元前5000--1700年)
中國
軟玉
直徑11.4、厚2.3釐米; 孔徑8釐米
查爾斯·蘭·佛利爾贈送
器物編號：F1918.29

Provenance: To 1918
Wang Jiantang, Shanghai to 1918 [1]

From 1918 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Wang Jiantang, in New York, in 1918 [2]

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

Notes:

[1] See Original Miscellaneous List, S.I. 1357, pg. 314, 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: Ring; wide perforation and flat sides; opaque cream white with some tan cloudings and a band of translucent ice green on inner surface, possibly the original color; proportions irregular; surface satin smooth. (Several old, smoothed chips.)

Acquired with a box, now lost.

Curatorial Remarks

1. Bought from K. T. Wong [Wang Jiantang] 王鑑堂, of Shanghai 上海, in New York. For price, see Original Miscellaneous List, p. 314. $300.

2. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Original attribution: Chinese. Hsia [Xia] 夏. See further, S.I. 1357, Appendix IX.

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

4. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Sp. G. is 2.715. Decomposed nephrite?

5. (Elisabeth West Fitzhugh, 1958) Opaque white is nephrite. X ray diffraction, film F 603.

6. (Thomas Lawton, 1978) Attribution changed from Chou [Zhou] 周 to Neolithic.

7. (Julia K. Murray, 1982) "3rd millennium BCE?" is added to the date. Since most of this bangle consists of altered stone, and there is only a small slice of green material on the inside of the ring, it seems likely (in view of the unusually large hole diameter) that some other object was fashioned from the material enclosed by the present ring, and what we have may be the leftover "skin." For a discussion of bangles, see Folder Sheet F1917.387.

8. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, May 10, 2016) Period changed from Neolithic to Late Neolithic, with object date changed from ca. 3000-2000 BCE to ca. 3000-1700 BCE.

Published References

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

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