East Asia, China, early Bronze Age, Erlitou culture (Late Xia Dynasty), ca. 1900 to 1500 BCE. A large, smooth, ritual blade, composed of a matte black-green jade, probably nephrite. The blade is straight-edged on its narrowest side, widening very gently to a curved blade edge. Low on the body, near the straight end, is a wide perforation used for binding the piece to a handle, which would have been at a right angle to the blade. This blade form is probably derived from a bronze ancestor. Size: 3.3" W x 11.6" H (8.4 cm x 29.5 cm); 14.45" H (36.7 cm) on included custom stand.
The smooth, symmetrical edges of this axe speak to the Erlitou stoneworker's skill and persistence in shaping this hard stone. The outline of the stone would be drawn on a slab and then cut out and shaped to create its rounded, sharpened blade edge. The Xia dynasty is by tradition the first dynasty of Chinese history, described in ancient chronicles like the Bamboo Annals. It represents a bridge between the late Neolithic and the first truly urban Chinese civilization in the Shang Dynasty.
Provenance: private New York, New York, USA collection; ex-Tom Murray collection, Mill Valley, California, USA, acquired from Joel Green in the 1990s
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#132015
Condition
Small chips from blade edges, particularly from the flatter side; a few surface scratches commensurate with age.