J.J. Lally & Co., Oriental Art / New York City, New York

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Past Exhibition

Ancient Chinese Jade

March 15-29, 2018

60.
A LARGE ARCHAIC JADE CEREMONIAL DAGGER AXE (GE)

Shang Dynasty, circa 1200 B.C.

the thinly carved blade of slender elegant unusual form, with sharp beveled cutting edges, both sides curving down in slightly different arcs and widening to very shallow angle-points where the beveled edges end and the blade immediately tapers more rapidly, ending in a narrow skewed point, with a very gently rising median crest extending from the bottom of the plain squared tang through the drilled hole at the top of the blade down to the tip, the pale green and buff mottled stone smoothly polished all over.

Length 18 14 inches (46.3 cm)

Provenance:
Ex Collection D. David-Weill (1871-1952), Paris
Ex Collection Guy Gudchau, Paris
Ex Collection Elie Borowski, Basel
Ex Collection Kojiro Ishiguro, Tokyo

A slightly smaller jade ge of very similar form found in the tomb of Lady Hao, a consort of the Shang King Wu Ding, is illustrated in the excavation report Yinxu Fu Hao mu (Tomb of Lady Hao at Yinxu in Anyang), Beijing, 1980, col. pl. XVII, no. 443.

Two large jade dagger axes of this form unearthed in 1986 from the ceremonial pits at Sanxingdui, Guanghan, Sichuan province are illustrated in Zhongguo yuqi quanji (Compendium of Chinese Jades), Vol. 2, Shijiazhuang, 1993, pp. 111-112, nos. 154 and 155.

Compare also the long jade ge of similar slender form illustrated by Loehr, Ancient Chinese Jades from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, 1975, p. 70, no. 61.

商 玉戈 長46.3厘米
來源 巴黎大衛威爾(1871-1952)舊藏
   巴黎Guy Gudchau舊藏
   巴塞爾Elie Borowski舊藏
   東京石黑孝次郎舊藏