SPRING AND AUTUMN PERIOD (770-476 BC)

This unusual dagger is very similar to one in the Idemitsu Art Museum dated to the Spring and Autumn period, and included in the exhibition, Mounted Nomads of Asian Steppes - Chinese Northern Bronzes, Equine Cultural Affairs Foundation of Japan and Tokyo National Museum, 1997, no. 78. Another similar example, in the Therese and Erwin Harris Collection, is illustrated by J. So and E. Bunker, Traders and Raiders on China's Northern Frontier, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, 1995, pp. 126-7, no. 43, where it is ascribed to Northwest China. The authors describe how the dagger was cast in one piece using a two-part mold, and also mention a similar dagger excavated from a seventh-century BC burial at Baqitun, Fengxiang Xian, Shaanxi province.