NEOLITHIC/EARLY SHANG DYNASTY, 4TH-2ND MILLENIUM BC

Details

AN EARLY JADE GE AND AN EARLY JADE AXE
NEOLITHIC/EARLY SHANG DYNASTY, 4TH-2ND MILLENIUM BC
The ge with median rib on both sides interrupted by a single hole drilled from both sides, the edges of the blade beveled, the stone now opaque and of pale buff color; the axe with two holes, one drilled from both sides the other from one side, the stone now opaque and of mottled ivory and pale mottled russet color; together with a dark mottled greenish-brown stone axe with single hole, late Neolithic/early Shang dynasty; and a blackish jade dao blade fragment with single hole and recarved at one end
8, 4 7/8, 7½ and 7¾ in. (20.3, 12.4, 19 and 19.7 cm.), wood box (4)

Provenance

Acquired prior to 1985.

Special notice

No sales tax is due on the purchase price of this lot if it is picked up or delivered in the State of New York.

Lot Essay

For a similar flattish rectangular jade axe, dated Neolithic, Liangzhu culture (c. 3300-2200 BC), see Y. Boda, Chinese Archaic Jades from the Kwan Collection, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1994, no. 38.
A jade ge dated to the Shang dynasty with similar long tang perforated with a single hole through the median rib just below the shoulders of the blade in the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University. See M. Loehr, Ancient Chinese Jades, Cambridge, 1975, p. 42, no. 60.

More from Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art

View All