Lot 11. Hache Cérémonielle en Jade calcifié, Qi, Fin de la dynastie Shang, ca 1200 avant J.-C.; Long. 13,8 cm; 5 3/8  in. Estimation: 12,000 — 15,000 €. Lot. Vendu 21,250 €. Photo Sotheby's 2015

rectangulaire aux angles légèrement asymétriques suggérant un losange, flanqué de quatre arêtes crênelées sur les côtés, percée au centre, les bords et la lame sculptés en léger dénivelé sur chaque face, la pierre d'une belle couleur chamois au doux poli, D.W 32.92.

Note: Many small jade axes have been recovered from late Shang sites at Anyang, among them several in the tomb of Fu Hao, ca. 1200 BC, compare Yinxu yuqi, Beijing, 1982, pl. 25. The small hole indicates that such axes were fastened to a bronze shaft or handle as illustrated by surviving examples, compare a very similar example from the Pillsbury Collection, published in Na Chih-Liang, Chinese Jades: Archaic and Modern, Minneapolis, 1977, pp. 52-53, no. 15. See another small jade axe of similar elongated form from the Luboshez Collection, illustrated in Harriet McNamee, Chinese Art from the Luboshez Collection, Maryland, 1972, pp. 40-41, no. 14 and fig. 19.

Sotheby's. Trésors de la Chine ancienne de la collection David David-Weill, Paris, 16 Dec 2015