Dagger-axe (ge 戈) with handle, masks (taotie), and cicadas early Anyang period, Late Shang dynasty, ca. 1200 BCE. Bronze with turquoise inlay and jade (nephrite) blade. H x W x D (overall): 10.6 × 41.9 × 0.9 cm. China, probably Henan province, Anyang. Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment,Freer Gallery of Art Collection, F1941.5 © 2026 Smithsonian Institution

Ceremonial weapon of the type ko [ge] 戈. The blade of mottled warm gray and white nephrite (stained by burial) mounted in bronze inlaid with turquoise (one bit missing); perforated tang heavily patinated.

Provenance : Reportedly excavated in Anyang, Henan province, China 

From 1940 to 1941, C. T. Loo & Company, New York from October 1940 

From 1941, Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from C. T. Loo & Company on March 20, 1941 [3]

Note : Tiny turquoise mosaics define the coiled dragons, with beaked head, three-clawed paw, and spiraling tail, on the projecting tang of this dagger-axe. X-radiographs of this object reveals it was assembled from different pieces that might not have belonged together originally and were pinned and soldered in place in modern times. These repairs explain the disorderly areas of turquoise inlay.