Lot 106. A large archaic jade ceremonial blade, ge, Shang – Zhou dynasty; 43.4 cm, 17 in. Estimate 700,000 — 900,000 HKD. Lot sold 750,000 HKD.  Courtesy Sotheby's.

impressively worked with sides outlined with bevelled edges, crisply and gently curving to a tapered point, the long blade further marked with a well-defined medial ridge, the tang worked with pairs of squared teeth along the edge with associated shallow grooves on both sides, echoed on the lower end of the bevelled edges of the blade, the tang further pierced with an aperture for hafting, the stone of opaque olive-brown colour with white and russet mottling.

Provenance: Acquired in the 1970s.

Note: Following the invention of bronze, weapons such as blades and daggers were added to the repertoire of pieces made in more refined materials such as jade for ceremonial use. The significance of these ceremonial blades in Shang dynasty society is illustrated by the sheer quantity and quality discovered in the tomb of Fu Hao (d. c.1200 BC), a consort of King Wu Ding (r. 1324-1266 BC). Fu Hao's tomb near the Shang dynasty capital Anyang in Henan province provides a glimpse into the variety in size, detail, design and excellence in craftsmanship that existed in her time, see Yinxu Fu Hao mu / Tomb of Lady Hao at Yinxu in Anyang, Beijing, 1980, pls 107-113 and Jessica Rawson, Chinese Jade. From the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, pp. 40-41.

Jade ge of related form, also featuring the ribs at the nei, include a longer example, excavated from Tomb No. 63 in the Necropolis of the Marquis of State Jin, Quwo, Shanxi Province, held in the Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, illustrated in Zhongguo chutu yuqi quanji / The Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China, vol. 3, Shanxi, Beijing, 2005, p. 111, together with a shorter version attributed to the Early Spring and Autumn period, excavated from Tomb No. 55 at the burial site of Shangguo, Wenxi, Shanxi province, in the Shanxi Provincial Museum, p. 164.