Page 26 - March 16, 2017 Chinese Art, The Harris Collection, Christies

814
A FINELY CAST BRONZE DAGGER
NORTHWEST CHINA, 7TH-6TH CENTURY BC
The tapering blade issues from a taotie mask that forms the
guard below the hollow-cast hilt decorated on each side with
eight panels of leiwen separated in the center by narrow slits,
and on the narrow sides and end of the butt with arrow-shaped
slits.
10æ in. (27.2 cm) long
$5,000-7,000

PROVENANCE

Christie’s New York, 1 December 1988, lot 141.
The Erwin Harris Collection, Miami, Florida.

LITERATURE

J. F. So and E. C. Bunker, Traders and Raiders on China’s Northern
Frontier, Washington D.C., Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 1995, p.
128, no. 45.
In Traders and Raiders on China’s Northern Frontier, J. F. So
suggests, p. 128, that the slits in the hilt would have allowed
“silk or fabric to be wrapped through and around them for
improved grip,” and notes that an identical hilt for a cast-iron
blade of 7th-6th century date found at Jingjiazhuang, Lingtai
Xian, Gansu province, illustrated in Kaogu 1981:4, pl. 5.10, p.
299, fg. 2.7, was apparently wrapped in silk.

公元前七至六世紀 中國北部 青銅短劍

24 THE HARRIS COLLECTION:
IMPORTANT EARLY CHINESE ART