Page 18 - Sothebys HK Dragon Emperor April 2024

3605

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT JAPANESE COLLECTION
A LARGE JADE CEREMONIAL BLADE,
NEOLITHIC PERIOD
Japanese wood box
42.4 cm

PROVENANCE
Collection of Yoshio Kojima, Tokyo.
Acquired from the above in 1994.

HK$ 800,000-1,200,000
US$ 103,000-154,000

新石器時代 玉刀
來源：
小島義雄收藏，東京
1994年購自上述來源

With three apertures along the upper edge and a fourth on
one side, this large ceremonial blade would likely have been
bound to a wooden handle which decomposed long ago. The
ancient jade, however, still remains. Of warm brownish tone
with a rich patina across its surface, this blade combines
the Neolithic forms of knife and tablet into an object of ritual
power.
Related ceremonial blades with subtle differences in shape
and in their pierced holes have been discovered in several
jade-working Neolithic cultures. See, for example, one
from the Longshan culture, excavated from Lushanmao
site, Yan’an, Shaanxi province, now in the Yan’an Institute
of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, with a slightly curved
cutting edge, four complete and three half holes, published
in The Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China,
vol. 14: Shaanxi, Beijing, 2005, pl. 8. Two blades from other
cultures are in the collection of the Harvard Art Museums,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, both illustrated in Jenny F.
So, Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art Museums, New
Haven, 2019, cat. nos 6B and 6C. The former (accession
no. 1943.50.47), attributed to the Shenmu culture, has a
dark amber brown tone and three similarly sized holes in a
linear arrangement. The latter (accession no. 1943.50.32),
attributed to the Qijia culture, drilled with four holes and a
fifth one close to the short side, has an opaque mottled grey
colour.

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