Lot 809. A bronze Ge-halberd blade, Late Shang Dynasty, 12th-11th Century BC. Estimate USD 5,000 - USD 7,000. Price realised USD 18,750. © Christie's Images Ltd 2017.

The curved butt is crisply cast on each side with a recessed design of a humanoid face shown in profile below a headdress or upswept hair, and the nei is pierced with a single hafting hole. The tapered blade is heavily encrusted. 15 ¼ in. (38.8 cm.) long

Provenance: Lester Wolfe Collection, New York, by 1974.
Christie’s New York, 6 June 1985, lot 89.
The Erwin Harris Collection, Miami, Florida.

Note: Compare the ge-halberd blade in the Museum van Aziatische Kunst, Amsterdam, which has a similarly shaped and decorated butt, illustrated by C. Deydier, Les Bronzes Chinois, Paris, 1980, p. 231, no. 99..

Christie's. The Harris Collection: Important Early Chinese Art, 16 March 2017, New York, Rockefeller Center