AN OLIVE-BROWN JADE GE-HALBERD BLADE

WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 9TH-8TH CENTURY BC

Details

AN OLIVE-BROWN JADE GE-HALBERD BLADE
WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 9TH-8TH CENTURY BC
Faintly curved with a median ridge extending the full length on both sides and beveled edges continuing to where the blade begins to sharply taper to the point, at the butt end the blade narrows at the tang where it is drilled with a biconical hole, and with a smaller biconical hole near the straight end of the tang, the stone now opaque and of soft, faintly mottled olive color, with satin-like polish and extensive traces of cinnabar as well as some earth accretions
9 3/8 in. (23.8 cm.) long

Provenance

A.W. Bahr Collection, Weybridge, 1963.

If you wish to view the condition report of this lot, please sign in to your account.

View condition report

Lot Essay

A ge-halberd blade of this shape dated late Shang or Western Zhou, but of longer length (48.5 cm.) in the Winthrop Collection is illustrated by M. Loehr, Ancient Chinese Jades, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, 1975, p. 66, no. 52. As with the present blade the jade is opaque.

This ge retains an unusual amount of cinnabar which would have been sprinkled in the tomb as a preservative before it was sealed.

More from Fine Chinese Art from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections

View All