Edward Luper
Specialist, Chinese Works of Art
Lot 1
A rare archaic bronze 'bird' dagger, ge Late Shang Dynasty, 12th-11th century BC
10 November 2016, 10:30 GMT
London, New Bond Street£2,000 - £3,000
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A rare archaic bronze 'bird' dagger, ge
Late Shang Dynasty, 12th-11th century BC
Tapering gently from the guard towards a pointed tip with a raised central ridge, the angular hilt at the end cast as an archaistic head of a bird, with Japanese box and cover. 27.6cm (10 7/8in) long (2).
Tapering gently from the guard towards a pointed tip with a raised central ridge, the angular hilt at the end cast as an archaistic head of a bird, with Japanese box and cover. 27.6cm (10 7/8in) long (2).
Footnotes
商末（公元前十二至十一世紀） 青銅歧冠鳥形曲內戈
Provenance: Yamanaka & Co., Kyoto
A European private collection, acquired from the above on 30 May 1965
來源： 京都古董商山中商會
歐洲私人收藏，於1965年5月30日購自上者
A similar excavated example, late Shang dynasty, was unearthed at Anyang, Henan province in 1975, see Zhongguo Qingtongqi Quanji 3. Shang 3, Beijing, 1997, p.204, no.203; see also a similar dagger illustrated by W.P.Yetts, The George Eumorfopoulos Collection, vol.I, London, 1940, p.68, pl.LXXII.
Compare also another dagger from the C.H.Wang collection, illustrated in Shang and Zhou Chinese Bronze Weaponry, Taipei, 1993, pp.98-99, no.6.
A pair of similar 'bird' daggers was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong on 5 April 2016, lot 2816; another similar dagger was sold at Sotheby's Paris on 16 December 2015, lot 9.
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