Lot 1201. Three bronze socketed Ge halberd blades, Late Shang-Early Western Zhou; 10, 8 3/8 and 9½ in. (25.5, 21.2 and 24 cm.) long. Estimate USD 3,000 - USD 5,000. Price realised USD 10,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2011.

Each tapering blade with a median ridge on both sides that continues over the tubular socket to the tang, one cast on both sides in intaglio with a taotie mask, the other two with a single pictograph, possibly a clan sign, all with malachite encrustation. 

Provenance: All: acquired in the United States prior to 1977.

Note: The unusual pictograph on the tang of the first and second blades can be seen on a similar ge halberd blade also with shaft ring in the Werner Jannings Collection in the Chinese National Museum, Beijing, illustrated by M. Loehr, Chinese Bronze Age Weapons, University of Michigan, 1956, pl. XXVIII, no. 67. The author notes that a possible reading of the character is mao, or it could be a clan sign, and also thinks that it resembles an early dagger type. 

Christie's. Property from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, New York, 24 March 2011