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Lot Essay
The long yuan (blade) of the present ge has a willow-leaf-shaped ridge. Below the lower cutting edge is a small hu (dewlap) pierced with a single rectangular perforation, while both the lan (banister) and the nei (tang) are unperforated. At the front, the tang aligns flush with the upper edge of the blade; at the rear, it transforms into a sculptural bird, distinguished by a long hooked beak curving inward, a flaring crest, a horn-like projection behind the head, and a short upturned tail.
A four-character inscription, Fu Ding Mu Ding (Father Ding, Mother Ding), is cast on one side of the tang, indicating that the owner commissioned the weapon in commemoration of his deceased parents. It is noteworthy that when the piece is mounted on a haft, the inscription reads upside-down. In Yin Xu Buci Zongshu [General Survey of the Inscriptions of the Yinxu Oracle Bones], Chen Mengjia notes that when the inscription reads in the natural direction, the blade points upward, implying that inscribed dagger-axes such as the current example were not meant for practical combat but functioned as ceremonial objects.
Dagger-axes with curved tangs are associated with the late Shang period and, and as a type, were short-lived, becoming uncommon by the early Western Zhou. Late Shang examples with curved tangs typically lack a hu, whereas the present piece combines a bird-headed curved tang with a pierced hu, a feature more characteristic of early Western Zhou straight-tang forms. A useful comparison is the ge excavated in 1974 from Liulihe, Tomb 205, which illustrates the early Western Zhou preference for straight tangs with dewlaps. The present ge retains the slightly curved and decorated tang of the late shang ge while incorporating the banister and slightly curved blade seen in ge from the Western Zhou period.
A four-character inscription, Fu Ding Mu Ding (Father Ding, Mother Ding), is cast on one side of the tang, indicating that the owner commissioned the weapon in commemoration of his deceased parents. It is noteworthy that when the piece is mounted on a haft, the inscription reads upside-down. In Yin Xu Buci Zongshu [General Survey of the Inscriptions of the Yinxu Oracle Bones], Chen Mengjia notes that when the inscription reads in the natural direction, the blade points upward, implying that inscribed dagger-axes such as the current example were not meant for practical combat but functioned as ceremonial objects.
Dagger-axes with curved tangs are associated with the late Shang period and, and as a type, were short-lived, becoming uncommon by the early Western Zhou. Late Shang examples with curved tangs typically lack a hu, whereas the present piece combines a bird-headed curved tang with a pierced hu, a feature more characteristic of early Western Zhou straight-tang forms. A useful comparison is the ge excavated in 1974 from Liulihe, Tomb 205, which illustrates the early Western Zhou preference for straight tangs with dewlaps. The present ge retains the slightly curved and decorated tang of the late shang ge while incorporating the banister and slightly curved blade seen in ge from the Western Zhou period.