Page 35 - JJ Lally Ancient Chinese Jades, 1988

23. A Large N eolithic Jade Ceremonial Blade ( Dao )
circa 2500–2000 B.C.
in the shape of a reaping knife, very thinly carved, with a straight upper horizontal edge and straight
outward sloping short ends, the long cutting edge very gently curved and beveled on both sides,
drilled with three large holes in a line below the upper edge and with one smaller hole toward one
end and lower down, the stone of dark olive green tone with some natural brown veins and pale
striations.
Length 22 ⁄16 inches (57 cm)
7
Large ceremonial jade dao blades have been treasured in both Chinese and Western collections.
Compare the similar jade blade very close in size and color, in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei,
illustrated in Huanghe liuyu shiqian yuqi tezhan tulu (Catalogue of Special Exhibition of Prehistoric Jade from the Yellow
River Valley), Taipei, 2001, pp. 102-103, no.2-1, described as Qijia culture.
Compare also the large jade blade in the collection of the National Museum of China, Beijing, illustrated in Zhongguo guojia
bowuguan guancang wenwu yanjiu congshu: yuqi juan (Studies of the Collection of the National Museum of China: Jade),
Shanghai, 2007, p. 76, no. 26.
Another similar jade blade of smaller size in the British Museum is illustrated by Rawson, Chinese Jade from the Neolithic
to the Qing, London, 1995, p. 186, no. 10:17. See also the jade blade in the Freer Gallery, illustrated by Hayashi, Chūgoku
kogyoku no kenkyū. Tokyo, 1991, p. 477, pl. 6-74. Another large jade blade in the Minneapolis Institute of Art, from the Alfred
F. Pillsbury Collection, is illustrated by Peterson (ed.), Chinese Jades: Archaic and Modern from the Minneapolis Institute of Arts,
London, 1977, p. 71, no. 47, with description on p. 70.
One of the largest jade blades of this form, excavated from Xiakou, Gulang, Gansu province, is illustrated by Gu (ed.),
Zhongguo chutu yuqi quanji (Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China), Vol. 15, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, Xinjiang,
Beijing, 2005, p. 39, described as Qijia Culture.

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