A Turquoise-Inlaid Bronze Curved Knife with Ibex-Head Hilt
A Turquoise-Inlaid Bronze Curved Knife with Ibex-Head Hilt

13TH CENTURY BC, NORTH CHINA

細節
A Turquoise-Inlaid Bronze Curved Knife with Ibex-Head Hilt
13th century BC, North China
The curved blade integrally cast with a slender, tapered handle terminating in an ibex head with ribbed horns gracefully arched back over the continuing arc of the blade, pricked ears and with turquoise-inlaid eyes and nostrils, a narrow strap formed by the slender beak of a small bird's head, also with turquoise-inlaid eyes, forming a suspension loop, the handle encircled by a ribbed band above a median band of dogtooth decoration ending at the guard
9 7/16in. (24cm.) long, box and stand
Falk Collection no. 531.
來源
Mathias Komor, New York, February 1945.
展覽
"Animal Style" Art from East to West, New York, Asia House Gallery, The Asia Society, 1970, no. 54.
Traders and Raiders Along China's Northern Frontier, Washington DC, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 1995-1996, no. 15.

拍品專文

Knives of this type have been excavated from sites in Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Hebei provinces, as well as the Shang capital at Anyang in Henan province. While these knives would have been used for hunting, more elaborate examples with zoomorphic handles, like the present piece, may also have signified rank, or possibly affiliation to a particular tribe or clan.
A similar bronze knife with an ibex-head pommel is illustrated by E. Bunker in Ancient Bronzes of the Eastern Eurasian Steppes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, New York, 1997, p. 121, no. 6. Similar examples are illustrated by Yang Xiaoneng in Sculpture of Xia & Shang China, Beijing, 1988, p. 196, pl. 191, and by B. Watson, Ancient Chinese Bronzes, London, 1962, pl. 83a. Another example, formerly from the collection of Captain Dugald Malcolm, C.M.G., C.V.O., T.D., was sold at Sotheby's London, 29 March 1977, lot 25, which refers to the Falk example in the footnote.