1. Bought from Seaouke Yue [You Xiaoxi] 游筱溪 of Shanghai 上海, in New York. For price, see Original Miscellaneous List, p. 340.
2. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Original attribution: Chinese. Chou [Zhou] 周. See further, S.I. 1426, Appendix IX.
3. (Isabel Ingram Mayer, 1945) Chou [Zhou] 周 dynasty.
4. (Undated Folder Sheet note) Sp. G. is 2.946.
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 Neolithic.
7. (Julia K. Murray, 1982) For a discussion of bangles, see Folder Sheet F1917.387. Bangle F1919.48 is very similar to F1919.49 in overall size and shape, although its walls are somewhat thicker and the diameter of the hole correspondingly smaller.
8. (Stephen Allee per Keith Wilson, March 3, 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.
9. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, July 1, 2008) Jewelry added as secondary classification.
10. (Jeffrey Smith per Janet Douglas, May 12, 2010) Nephrite added as modifier to existing medium of "jade" based on conservation analysis.
12. (Susan Kitsoulis per Keith Wilson, June 10, 2010) Added "Songze 崧澤 culture" to artist constituent field; date changed from "3300--2250 BCE" to "ca. 3500--2700 BCE."
Draft catalogue entry for F1919.48; by Jenny F. So (2003)
Bracelet
Neolithic period, 3rd millennium BCE
Liangzhu 良渚 culture, Lake Tai 太湖 region
Nephrite, translucent apple-green with white and ivory streaks
Diameter 8.23--8.46 cm; of hole 5.13--5.27 cm; height 1.52--1.83 cm
F1919.48
A robust bracelet with rounded cross-section and straight inner walls is unevenly shaped and of irregular thickness. The undecorated surface has been polished to a soft, lustrous finish that displays the natural color and translucence of the material at its best.
The smoothly rounded silhouette demands more effort to make, as the bracelet started off as a roughly rectangular slice. The work required to produce its convex outer wall is considerably greater that that needed to simply round off the angular edges as in F1919.50. Coupled with its choice of material, it would be reasonable to see the wearer of bracelets like these enjoying certain distinction within a community.
In shape, its generously thick but unevenly shaped silhouette are duplicated by bracelets also recovered from the Lianzhu 良渚 site at Yuhang 餘杭 Yaoshan 瑤山 and Fuquanshan 福泉山. [1] Although most of them are plain, in rare instances, they carry carefully worked designs that rival the best of modern lapidary products (fig. 1). In terms of material, an axe from Yuhang 餘杭 Fanshan 反山 shows a similarly translucent apple-green under altered white streaks, one of the best materials reserved for some of the most important objects made by the people. [2]
Published: Julia K. Murray, "Neolithic Chinese Jades in the Freer Gallery of Art," Orientations 14, no. 11 (1983), p. 21.
Figure:
1. Bracelet with twisted rope design (Zhejiang sheng wenwu kaogu yanjiusuo 浙江省文物考古研究所, Shanghai shi wenwu guanli weiyuanhui 上海市文物管理委员会, and Nanjing bowuyuan 南京博物院, Liangzhu wenhua yuqi 良渚文化玉器 [Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, and Hong Kong: Liangmu chubanshe, 1989], no. 99).
[1] For examples, see Zhejiang sheng wenwu kaogu yanjiusuo 浙江省文物考古研究所, Shanghai shi wenwu guanli weiyuanhui 上海市文物管理委员会, and Nanjing bowuyuan 南京博物院, Liangzhu wenhua yuqi 良渚文化玉器 (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, and Hong Kong: Liangmu chubanshe, 1989), no. 97; Huang Xuanpei 黃宣佩, Fuquanshan: Xinshiqi shidai yizhi fajue baogao 福泉山:新石器时代遗址发掘报告 (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 2000), color plate 27:1.
[2] Zhejiang sheng wenwu kaogu yanjiusuo 浙江省文物考古研究所, Shanghai shi wenwu guanli weiyuanhui 上海市文物管理委员会, and Nanjing bowuyuan 南京博物院, Liangzhu wenhua yuqi 良渚文化玉器 (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, and Hong Kong: Liangmu chubanshe, 1989), nos. 237--38. No published image of this axe does justice to its brilliant apple-green color under the dense white streaks from alteration. This can only be seen when viewing the original object, something that the author was privileged to experience courtesy of Mou Yongkang 牟永康 in 1994
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