Page 280 - Bonhams Fine Chinese Art Nov 2013 Hong Kong

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An archaic bronze ‘toad’ axe-head, yue
455 Late Shang dynasty
278 | Bonhams The curved blade with a wide waisted cheek, featuring a pierced design
with a stylised toad encircled within raised ridges, a further two piercings
at the hu and another at the na.
18.1cm wide.
HK$120,000 - 180,000
US$15,000 - 23,000

商晚期 青銅蛙紋鉞

See an excavated example of a similar pierced axe-head also with a
toad decoration, unearthed in Shaanxi Province in 1981, illustrated in
Zhongguo Qingtongqi Quanji 4. Shang 4, Beijing, 1998, p.177, no.185.

455
An archaic bronze turquoise-inlaid axe-head
Late Shang dynasty
The blade cast in the form of a trapezoid with a curved end gently
flaring from the shaft, decorated with archaistic scrolling motifs at the
shaft and the na inset with turquoise.
17.2cm long.
HK$50,000 - 80,000
US$6,500 - 10,000

商晚期 鑲嵌青銅鉞

Excavated examples of similar axe-heads dated to the late Shang dynasty
have been widely published, however it is rare to find one with inlaid
turquoise decoration. Compare an excavated example of a bronze hand
axe decorated with inlaid turquoise also dated to the late Shang dynasty,
unearthed in Anyang, Henan province, in the Freer Gallery of Art,
Washington D.C., illustrated in Zhongguo Qingtongqi Quanji 3. Shang 3,
Beijing, 1997, p.207, no.206.