LATE SHANG/EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, SICHUAN PROVINCE, 11TH CENTURY BC

This blade would have been intentionally bent prior to burial. The same can be seen on two kui of this size and shape illustrated in Bronzes of Shang and Zhou Dynasties Unearthed in Shaanxi Province, Beijing, 1979, p. 46, nos. 34 and 35. The first has pierced decoration on the blade, the second is plain. A kui with an unbent blade which is very similar to the present kui, but minus the nei, from the Hellmstrom Collection, was included in the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1935-6, no. 169.