Axe (yue 鉞), Anyang period, Late Shang dynasty, ca. 1300-ca. 1050 BCE. Bronze with turquoise inlay and jade (nephrite) blade. H x W x D: 20.2 x 11 x 1 cm. China, probably Henan province, Anyang. Gift of Arthur M. Sackler, Arthur M. Sackler Collection, S1987.899 © 2026 Smithsonian Institution

The bronze haft is of rectangular shape widening in steps toward the socket where only one side bar remains. A trapezoidal hafting hole pierces the haft below its decorated zone. The upper half is inlaid with large turquoise or green glass chips that depict an eye surrounded by linear ornament giving the impression of a head of a zoomorphic figure in profile. This design occurs on both sides. A thick woven material is incrusted in some areas of the bronze. The jade blade, beveled on the sides, widens to the sharpened cutting edge. A cut-out exists at the top of one side of the blade. Its color is buff with one greenish area. (Alterations in the color from green to whitish-buff of the jade; heavy incrustation of patina on haft; some inlay missing or covered with incrustations of bronze patination; blade is chipped on corner of one side with a cut-out on the edge of the other end of the same side.)

Provenance : To 1959, Abel William Bahr (1877-1959), Shanghai, China, London, England, Montreal, Canada, New York, NY, and Ridgefield, Connecticut 

From 1959 to 1963, Edna H. Bahr (d. 1978), by descent from her father, Abel William Bahr

From 1963 to 1987, Arthur M. Sackler, New York, purchased from Edna H. Bahr in 1963 

From 1987, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, gift of Arthur M. Sackler on September 11, 1987