Lot 109
109
THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 1997 SALE #8636 AT 2:00 P.M. PRECISELY (LOTS 109-201) EARLY JADES
THREE EARLY STONE AXES

Details
THREE EARLY STONE AXES
NEOLITHIC PERIOD, 4TH/3RD CENTURY B.C.

Each carved from both sides with a hole for attachment; one of milky, pale turquoise-hued gray color, of elliptical section and flaring from the butt end to the tapered, curved cutting edge, with satiny polish; the smallest of similar shape carved from a stone with curved striations of various gray tones, also of elliptical section and tapering towards the three edges; the third of dark gray color with a network of pale mottling on one side from burial, of wide, slightly flaring shape, the cutting edge with a curved bevel on each side
7, 5 3/8 and 6in. (17.8, 13.6 and 15.2cm.) long (3)

Lot Essay

For drawings of stone axes which include examples similar in outline to those of the present lot, see the Catalogue for the exhibition, Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, p. 172, and no. 10:5, pl. 128, for an axe carved from stone very similar to that of the smallest axe in this lot. See, also, p. 21, fig. 5b, op. cit., for an axe quite similar to the first in the lot