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Lot Essay
Axes of this type appear to have been made in Northeast China, between the 11th-8th century BC. They were a continuation of a socketed type first made in West Asia, which was introduced into the periphery of China during the 2nd millenium BC.
A similar circular axe in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, is illustrated in a line drawing by M. Loehr, Chinese Bronze Age Weapons, University of Michigan, 1956, p. 6, fig. 4. Unlike the present axe, the blade is cast with a tiger motif and has two angular studs in place of the standing tiger projecting from the side of the socket. The same whorl motif can be found on an axe of this type with more oval blade, also in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, illustrated p. 5, fig. 3A; and on another socketed axe head with oval blade illustrated by E. Bunker et al., Nomadic Art of the Eastern Eurasian Steppes, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2002, no. 42.
A similar circular axe in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, is illustrated in a line drawing by M. Loehr, Chinese Bronze Age Weapons, University of Michigan, 1956, p. 6, fig. 4. Unlike the present axe, the blade is cast with a tiger motif and has two angular studs in place of the standing tiger projecting from the side of the socket. The same whorl motif can be found on an axe of this type with more oval blade, also in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, illustrated p. 5, fig. 3A; and on another socketed axe head with oval blade illustrated by E. Bunker et al., Nomadic Art of the Eastern Eurasian Steppes, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2002, no. 42.