Object Details
Label
When the museum acquired this assemblage in 1930, shortly after the discoveries at Jincun, these four pendants and six cylindrical beads were attached to the linked gold chain as shown. Recent scientific study confirms both the jade and the chain are genuine to the period, but they might not have been together in ancient times.
To fashion these ornate pendants, Jincun craftsmen used relatively sophisticated metal tools to cut, drill, facet, and polish thin slices of beige nephrite. Patience and skill produced the dramatic contours, textured surfaces, and intricate openwork details that are an amazing aesthetic and technical advancement over the largely unadorned disks of the Neolithic period.
Provenance
Possibly excavated from a tomb of the late Warring States period at Jincun, Henan province, China [1]
1930
C. T. Loo & Company, New York, NY, 1930 [2]
From 1930
Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from C. T. Loo & Company, New York, NY in 1930 [3]
Notes:
[1] See Thomas Lawton, Chinese Art of the Warring States Period: Change and Continuity, 480-222 B.C., exhibition cat. (Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1982), pg. 132, cat. no. 77.
[2] Object file, undated folder sheet. See also Freer Gallery of Art Purchase List file, Collections Management Office.
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art Collection
Exhibition History
Ancient Chinese Jades and Bronzes (November 20, 2010 to January 3, 2016)
Chinese Art (February 18, 1983 to April 1, 1987)
Chinese Art of the Warring States Period: Change and Community, 480-222 B.C. (September 30, 1982 to February 17, 1983)
Ancient Chinese Jade (September 4, 1980 to March 6, 1981)
Chinese Art (January 1, 1963 to March 6, 1981)
Chinese Bronze, Jade, Metalwork (March 1, 1957 to January 1, 1963)
Centennial Exhibition, Galleries 14 and 15 (February 25, 1956 to March 1, 1957)
Untitled Exhibition, Chinese Art, 1955 (August 26, 1955 to October 25, 1955)
Untitled Exhibition, Ancient Chinese Art, 1946 (May 7, 1946 to February 25, 1956)
Untitled Exhibition, Chinese Art, 1944 (November 15, 1944 to May 6, 1946)
Untitled Exhibition, Ancient Chinese Art, 1943 (March 22, 1943 to November 17, 1944)
Untitled Exhibition, Chinese Metalwork (March 14, 1931 to March 22, 1943)
Untitled Exhibition, Shahnama and Chinese Art (March 24, 1930 to May 5, 1933)
Previous custodian or owner
C. T. Loo & Company (1914-1948)
Credit Line
Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment
Date
475-221 BCE
Period
Eastern Zhou dynasty, Warring States period
Accession Number
F1930.27a-k
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Type
Jewelry and Ornament
Medium
Jade (nephrite) and gold
Dimensions
H x W (overall): 42 × 20 cm (16 9/16 × 7 7/8 in)
Origin
Probably Jincun, Henan province, China
Related Online Resources
Google Arts & Culture
Jades for Life and Death
See more items in
National Museum of Asian Art
Data Source
National Museum of Asian Art
Topic
carving
jade
nephrite
gold
dragon
tiger
Eastern Zhou dynasty (770 - 221 BCE)
Warring States period (475 - 221 BCE)
woman
China
Chinese Art
dancer
wirework
Link to Original Record
Record ID
fsg_F1930.27a-k