Page 225 - Chinese Works of Art Chritie's Mar. 22-23 2018

PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF ERWIN HARRIS
929
TWO BRONZE KNIVES
SOUTH CENTRAL INNER MONGOLIA,
6TH-5TH CENTURY BC AND NORTHEASTERN
CHINA, 11TH-10TH CENTURY BC
The frst has a tapering rhombic blade that issues
from a guard formed by two addorsed raptor’s heads
below a narrow hilt centered by two vertical grooves,
and the pommel is formed by two inverted bird’s
heads, their curved beaks forming two adjacent
rings. The second has a pommel in the shape of a
stylized raptor’s head with large circular eye, a hilt
that is troughed on both sides, and a curved blade.
9¿ and 6¡ in. (23.2 and 16.2 cm.) long
(2)
$2,000-3,000

PROVENANCE
Larger knife: Dr. Ping Yiu Tam Collection,
Hong Kong.
J. J. Lally & Co., New York, 1993.
Smaller knife: Joseph G. Gerena, New York,
16 December 1998.
Both: The Erwin Harris Collection, Miami, Florida.
EXHIBITED
Larger knife: Hong Kong Museum, Oriental Ceramic
Society of Hong Kong and the Urban Council of
Hong Kong, Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes,
12 October-2 December 1990, no. 196.
LITERATURE
Larger knife: J. Rawson and E. Bunker, Ancient
Chinese and Ordos Bronzes, Oriental Ceramic
Society, Hong Kong, 1990, p. 314, no. 196.
The frst knife is of a type similar to three illustrated
by E. C. Bunker et al., Ancient Bronzes of the
Eastern Eurasian Steppes from the Arthur M. Sackler
Collections, New York, 1997, pp. 203-204, nos. 139,
140 and 140.1. The second knife may be compared
to a knife with bird’s head pommel and curved
blade illustrated ibid., p. 136, no. 25.
公元前六至五世紀及公元前十一至十世紀
銅刀兩件

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