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拍品專文
The first character of the pictograph on this axe is most likely a clan name or emblem, which includes the component shan, or 'mountain'. A similar mark appears on a yu from Shaanxi, discussed by R. Bagley in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, Washington DC, 1987, pp. 506-7, fig. 98.5.
The central taotie mask on each side of this axe head has been cast in high relief. Similar deeply cast masks typically appear on ritual vessels, such as the Shang dynasty fangjia illustrated by M. Loehr in Ritual Vessels of Bronze Age China, The Asia Society, New York, 1968, pp. 80-81, and an Anyang fangyi illustrated by R. Bagley, op. cit., p. 443, fig. 79.1.
Compare a similar bronze axe head but with a larger taotie mask on the blade, illustrated by M. Loehr in Chinese Bronze Age Weapons: The Werner Jannings Collection in the Chinese National Palace Museum, Peking, Ann Arbor, 1956, pl. IX, no. 11, and an axe also with a taotie mask with C-scroll horns on the blade and a smaller taotie mask cast in intaglio on the tang illustrated by M. Hearn in Ancient Chinese Art: The Ernest Erickson Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1987, p. 41, no. 24.
The reddish-brown oxidized residues in the recessed areas of the casting are probably the remains of coloration, possibly cinnebar, which would have decorated the axe. Similar traces of a red compound are found on a bronze axe head from Anyang illustrated in A. Leth, Kinesisk Kunst I Kunstindustri Museet/Catalogue of Selected Objects of Chinese Art in the Museum of Decorative Art, Copenhagen, 1959, no. 5.
The central taotie mask on each side of this axe head has been cast in high relief. Similar deeply cast masks typically appear on ritual vessels, such as the Shang dynasty fangjia illustrated by M. Loehr in Ritual Vessels of Bronze Age China, The Asia Society, New York, 1968, pp. 80-81, and an Anyang fangyi illustrated by R. Bagley, op. cit., p. 443, fig. 79.1.
Compare a similar bronze axe head but with a larger taotie mask on the blade, illustrated by M. Loehr in Chinese Bronze Age Weapons: The Werner Jannings Collection in the Chinese National Palace Museum, Peking, Ann Arbor, 1956, pl. IX, no. 11, and an axe also with a taotie mask with C-scroll horns on the blade and a smaller taotie mask cast in intaglio on the tang illustrated by M. Hearn in Ancient Chinese Art: The Ernest Erickson Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1987, p. 41, no. 24.
The reddish-brown oxidized residues in the recessed areas of the casting are probably the remains of coloration, possibly cinnebar, which would have decorated the axe. Similar traces of a red compound are found on a bronze axe head from Anyang illustrated in A. Leth, Kinesisk Kunst I Kunstindustri Museet/Catalogue of Selected Objects of Chinese Art in the Museum of Decorative Art, Copenhagen, 1959, no. 5.