J.J. Lally & Co., Oriental Art / New York City, New York
MenuPast Exhibition
Ancient Chinese Bronzes
March 19 - April 9, 2011
23.
A BRONZE KNIFE WITH HANDLE IN THE FORM OF
A MYTHICAL BEAST
Western Zhou Dynasty (1027 – 771 B.C.)
the slender curving blade with sharp cutting edge rounded up to a point at the tip, the thick squared back of the blade widening toward the handle which is cast in the form of a fabulous animal with feline body and large grotesque head surmounted by long ribbed horns curled behind ‘C’-shaped ears, the body and head of the beast with swirling and curling linear motifs and large round eyes on the matching flattened sides separated by a deep slot extending from the top of the head down to the center of the body, the wide opening at the edges bridged by struts, and with smaller apertures pierced through the forepaws, between the tail and the hind legs and at the widest part of the blade; the surface with a glossy black ‘water patina’ showing areas of lightly encrusted green malachite corrosion on one side.
Length 7 1⁄2 inches (19 cm)
Compare the cast bronze dagger with double-edged blade similarly decorated with a mythical beast on the handle, unearthed in 1983 from a late Western Zhou tomb at Yu village, Ning county, Gansu province, illustrated in the excavation report in Kaogu, 1985, No. 4, pl. 5-2, with an image of a rubbing on p. 350, pl. 3-1.
Compare also the archaic bronze handle cast in a very similar style with a standing mythical beast with large grotesque head and flattened body, from the Collection of H. M. Gustaf VI Adolf, now in the Museum of Far East Antiquities, Stockholm, illustrated by Gyllensvärd and Pope in the catalogue of the travelling exhibition entitled Chinese Art from the Collection of H. M. King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden, Asia House, New York, 1966, p. 34, no. 31. The same bronze handle was previously illustrated in the Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, No. 6, Stockholm, 1934, pl. XXV, described on pp. 112-113; and was illustrated more recently by Li and Allan in Ouzhou suocang Zhongguo qingtongqi yizhu (Chinese Bronzes: A Selection from European Collections), Beijing, 1995, no. 104A-B, attributed by the authors to early Western Zhou.
西周 獸紋柄銅刀
長 19 厘米
