An archaic green jade ceremonial blade (Ge), Shang dynasty

拍品描述

Chinese Jades from the Ralph Wanger Collection Length 15 in., 38 cm This magnificent blade, of gentle curved form and rich coloration, exemplifies the highest quality of archaic jade bladework. Unlike most early jade wares, which seem to imitate earlier stone or metal prototypes, the present ge form, derived from the bronze dagger-axe, appears to have emerged roughly simultaneously with its metal counterpart. While debates continue as to whether jade implements were ever used in everyday life, given their robust material, or served only ritual functions by virtue of their beautiful stone, today it is the symbolic role of blades like the present that dominates their impact on the beholder: extraordinary demonstrations of power and majesty embodied in ancient stone. Compare a smaller blade of similar form in Alfred Salmony, Archaic Chinese Jades from the Edward and Louise B. Sonnenschein Collection, Chicago, 1952, pl. VII:1; another slightly shorter blade of cream tone with hafting notches to the tang in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Jadeware (I), Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 46; a blade very closely related in form and color but without a central bevel uncovered from Daluchencun, Xuchang, Henan province, now in the Henan Provincial Museum in Gu Fang, The Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China, vol. 5: Henan, Beijing, 2005, p. 114; and another from the sumptuously decorated tomb of Fu Hao (d. ca. 1200 BCE) in The Jades from Yinxu, Beijing, 1981, pl. 20 inscribed with a dedication marking it as one of five spears given from a certain official Jie of the Lu Fang state. Examples of this size and quality appear very rarely to market. Compare a related ge with its original bronze haft, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 22nd April 2021, lot 46; a white jade ge with an incised design to the tang and inscribed for the use of Marquis Mi of Qi, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30th November 2020, lot 2707; and a grey-green example with two holes to the tang from the von Oertzen collection, sold twice at Christie’s, most recently 3rd November 2020, lot 2; and another from the collection of A. W. Bahr sold at Christie’s New York, 19th March 2008, lot 478.

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