Ceremonial Blade with Three Perforations (Dao) (2000–1700 BCE): Art, History and Details

Ceremonial Blade with Three Perforations (Dao) (2000–1700 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This impressive blade combines the beauty of material, precision of geometry, and mastery of technique. The fine polish, silken sheen, and extreme thinness (only 2 mm thick) make it an outstanding example of meticulous workmanship in ancient jade craft. Recent recoveries of similar blades from a pit of a Qijia cultural site located in northwest China reveal that they were originally standing on their edges and were arranged in parallel formations at the ritual ground.

Object facts

• Title: Ceremonial Blade with Three Perforations (Dao)
• Date: 2000–1700 BCE
• Culture: Northwest China, Neolithic period to Bronze Age, Qijia culture (2000–1700 BCE)
• Type: Jade
• Technique: jade (nephrite)
• Dimensions: Overall: 35.2 cm (13 7/8 in.)
• Collection: China - Neolithic
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 2009.83

A detail from the museum

Although it may look made of metal, this blade is actually skillfully worked jade.

Collection credit

Severance and Greta Millikin Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Loehr, Max and Louisa G. Fitzgerald Huber. Ancient Chinese Jades from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University: [Exhibited ... January 22-March 18, 1975]. Cambridge, Mass: Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, 1975.
• Shaanxi Sheng kao gu yan jiu suo, and Yulin Shi wen wu bao hu yan jiu suo 陕西省考古硏究所, 榆林市文物保护研究所. Shen mu xin hua 神木新华. Beijing: Ke xue chu ban she, 2005.
• Christie's New York, NY. Fine Chinese Art from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections. Sale 2286.18 March 2009. Lot no. 275.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.