Title
Gui ceremonial blade
Artists
Unknown Artist
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Details
- Other Title
- Ceremonial blade
- Place where the work was made
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China
- Period
- Shang dynasty circa 1600 - 1100 BCE → China
- Media category
- Ceremonial object
- Materials used
- nephrite
- Dimensions
- 52.1 x 9.5 x 0.3 cm; 56.5 x 10.0 x 1.0 cm mounted on mount; 56.5 x 12.5 x 13.9 cm object with stand
- Signature & date
Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Gift of Dr J.L. Shellshear 1954
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 9039
- Copyright
- Share
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About
In shape, this ceremonial or funerary jade is reminiscent of a Neolithic stone harvesting knife, even down to the perforations along the unsharpened edge. On the original these would have served to attach a backing or grip for the hand. To make the blade, its outline would first have been drawn on a flat slab sawn from the block. Jade is so hard it cannot b cut with metals; the Chinese used an abrasive sand with a greater degree of hardness. During the Shang period such replicas of tools were used as ceremonial emblems.
‘The Asian Collections: Art Gallery of New South Wales’. pg.73
© 2003 Trustees, Art Gallery of New South Wales -
Places
Where the work was made
China
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Exhibition history
Shown in 1 exhibition
Early Chinese art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 26 Feb 1983–08 May 1983
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Bibliography
Referenced in 2 publications
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Jackie Menzies, Early Chinese Art, Sydney, 1983, (illus.) not paginated. cat.no. V See 'Further Information' for text.
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Jackie Menzies (Editor), The Asian Collections Art Gallery of New South Wales, 'Bronzes and Jades', Sydney, 2003, 73 (colour illus.).
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