Lot Essay
Blades of this large trapezoidal shape, dao, usually have three, or sometimes four or five holes drilled near one edge opposite the beveled, cutting edge. The holes were for lashing the blade to a wood handle. The present blade appears to be cut down from a longer blade, probably broken at one time, and therefore the third hole is now missing. Longer jade blades of this type excavated at a Longshan Culture site at Shimao, Shenmuxian, Shaanxi province, are illustrated in Kaogu, 1977:3, p. 156, figs. 1 and 2. Fig. 1 shows a blade with three holes along one edge, as well as a fourth hole placed in a position similar to that on the present blade. Fig. 2 shows a blade with five holes. In line drawings on p. 155, one can see that both had been broken. A long blade of similar type (38.7 cm.) in the Winthrop Collection is illustrated by M. Loehr in Ancient Chinese Jades, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, p. 169, no. 217; and another from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections was sold in these rooms, 1 December 1994, lot 76.