A BRONZE SWORD WITH TURQUOISE INLAY

EARLY WARRING STATES PERIOD, 5TH CENTURY BC

Details

A BRONZE SWORD WITH TURQUOISE INLAY
EARLY WARRING STATES PERIOD, 5TH CENTURY BC
The blade with median ridge and beveled edges continuing to the tip, the guard decorated on each side with a taotie mask inlaid in turquoise chips, as are the two raised rings encircling the hilt, which is wrapped with plaited cord between the rings and fine fiber below the concave circular pommel, with olive-brown patina and azurite and malachite encrustation
22 7/8 in. (58.1 cm.) long, box

Provenance

Dr. Max Loehr Collection.
Eskenazi Ltd., London, 11 March 1991.

Exhibited

The Glorious Traditions of Chinese Bronzes, Singapore, 2000, no. 42.
Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 2002-2006.

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Lot Essay

A sword of comparable size (60.5 cm. long), with similar turquoise-inlaid guard and collars, is illustrated by M. Loehr, Chinese Bronze Age Weapons, University of Michigan, 1956, pl. XXXVIII (no. 98). The author's description of the patina, p. 203, also seems to be very similar to that of the present sword. A detail of sword no. 97, pl. XL, which also has turquoise inlay on the guard and rings, shows remains of fine fibers wrapped around the hilt just below the pommel, as seen on the present sword. See, also, W. Watson, Handbook to the Collections of Early Chinese Antiquities, The British Museum, 1958, p. 60, fig. 17, where two line drawings show the hilt of a similar sword (a) and the silk cord-wrapped hilt of a sword excavated at Changsha, Henan province (b).

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