Page 57 - 2019 September 10th Sotheby's Important Chinese Art Junkunc Collection

he present sword is a very rare example among inscribed weapons produced during the
Eastern Zhou dynasty. The inscription was first cast to the blade in intaglio, then inlaid
Twith turquoise forming two columns of characters in mirror images. The inscription reads
Caigongzi Cong zhiyong, which can be translated to ‘for the use of Cong, son of the Marquis of Cai’.

Apart from the present lot, four other bronze weapons with the same inscription are known: one,
also a sword, made of iron, with the six characters arranged in two columns, reportedly in a Japanese
collection, is published in Wu Zhenfeng, Shangzhou qingtongqi mingwen ji tuxiang jicheng [Compendium
of inscriptions and images of bronzes from Shang and Zhou dynasties], vol. 33, Shanghai, 2012, no.
17838; three halberd blades, two with the inscription inlaid in gold along the yuan and the hu, one in the
National Palace Museum, Taipei, is published in ibid., vol. 31, Shanghai, 2012, no. 16905, the other in
Prince Kung’s Mansion, Beijing, is published on the museum’s website; and the fourth, cast with the six-
character inscription to the hu in two columns, is illustrated in op. cit., vol. 31, Shanghai, 2012, no. 16906.

此柄佩劍乃東周銘文兵器之罕例，銘文記「蔡公子從 一戈，六字作兩行，銘於胡，亦見前述出處，卷31
之用」，先於劍身陰鑄文字，再嵌綠松石，兩行對 ，上海，2012年，編號16906。
映，形如鏡影。
依銘文可知，佩此劍者名從，春秋戰國之際，諸侯之
此劍之外，另存蔡公子從兵刃四例，銘文相同：其 子方謂公子，故公子從應為蔡國蔡侯之子，然閱史
一為劍，鐵鑄，六字銘文分據兩行，傳日本收藏， 料，其名失載。蔡國歷史可溯至周初。據《史記》
刊吳鎮烽，《商周青銅器銘文暨圖像集成》，卷33 載，第一代周天子武王封其弟叔度於蔡（今河南省上
，上海，2012年，編號17838；其餘三例為戈，有 蔡縣）。蔡國煊赫一時，未久，鄰邦勢盛，蔡國式
二戈銘文錯金，位於援、胡，分別藏國立故宮博物 微。春秋末年，楚國攻蔡，蔡國受迫遷都至州來（今
院，台北，錄同上出處，卷31，上海，2012年，編 安徽省壽縣、鳳臺一帶），時前493年。後至戰國，
號16905，及恭王府博物館，北京，載於其官網，另 蔡國於前447年為楚惠王所併。

Above The present lot illustrated in An Exhibition of Ancient Chinese Ritual Brones Loaned by C.T. Loo & Co., The Detroit Institute of Arts,
Detroit, 1940, cat. no. 55.
上 本品錄於《An Exhibition of Ancient Chinese Ritual Bronzes Loaned by C.T. Loo & Co.》，底特律藝術博物館，底特律，1940年，編號55

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