SOUTH CENTRAL INNER MONGOLIA, 6TH-5TH CENTURY BC AND NORTHEASTERN CHINA, 11TH-10TH CENTURY BC

Details

TWO BRONZE KNIVES
SOUTH CENTRAL INNER MONGOLIA, 6TH-5TH CENTURY BC AND NORTHEASTERN CHINA, 11TH-10TH CENTURY BC
The first has a tapering rhombic blade that issues from a guard formed by two addorsed raptor's heads below a narrow hilt centered by two vertical grooves, and the pommel is formed by two inverted bird's heads, their curved beaks forming two adjacent rings. The second has a pommel in the shape of a stylized raptor's head with large circular eye, a hilt that is troughed on both sides, and a curved blade.
9 1/8 and 6 3/8 in. (23.2 and 16.2 cm.) long

Provenance

Larger knife: Dr. Ping Yiu Tam Collection, Hong Kong.
J. J. Lally & Co., New York, 1993.
Smaller knife: Joseph G. Gerena, New York, 16 December 1998.
Both: The Erwin Harris Collection, Miami, Florida.

Literature

Larger knife: J. Rawson and E. Bunker, Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes, Oriental Ceramic Society, Hong Kong, 1990, p. 314, no. 196.

Exhibited

Larger knife: Hong Kong Museum, Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong and the Urban Council of Hong Kong, Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes, 12 October-2 December 1990, no. 196.

Lot Essay

The first knife is of a type similar to three illustrated by E. C. Bunker et al., Ancient Bronzes of the Eastern Eurasian Steppes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, New York, 1997, pp. 203-204, nos. 139, 140 and 140.1. The second knife may be compared to a knife with bird's head pommel and curved blade illustrated ibid., p. 136, no. 25.

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