? A LARGE MOTTLED GREEN AND RUSSET JADE AXE, YUE, LATE NEOLITHIC PERIOD, LIANGZHU CULTURE Expert authentication: Dr. Gu Fang has examined the present lot and confirms its authenticity and the dating above, noting the style of cutting, workmanship, thickness and quality of stone with decomposed areas indicating burial all suggest a dating to the Liangzhu culture. He assessed it as a piece of notably good quality. A signed and notarized copy of Dr. Gu's expertise, dated 21 March 2022, accompanies this lot.
Dr. Gu Fang (born 1962) is an internationally renowned scholar of Chinese art and a leading authority on jades. He graduated from the Department of Archaeology at the prestigious Beijing University in 1986 and later studied at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), where he now serves as a Senior Fellow specializing in archaeological excavations and Chinese jade research. A former visiting scholar at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, he has authored several books on Chinese jades, including the 15-volume The Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China (2007), one of the most comprehensive studies of its kind, as well as Chinese Jade: The Spiritual and Cultural Significance of Jade in China (2012).
China, 3200-2300 BC. The broad axe, of trapezoidal form, expertly carved with a thin beveled cutting edge and a circular aperture, drilled from both sides and retaining a central ridge. The finely polished, near-opaque stone of varying shades of mossy green, with extensive russet patches, dark shadings, and icy white inclusions.
Provenance: From a private collection in Hong Kong, 2004. A private collection in New York, United States, acquired from the above.
Condition: Good condition, commensurate with age, with ancient wear, natural age-related imperfections, and traces of weathering and erosion. A small chip to one upper corner, which has partially smoothened over time, and minor nibbling along the edges, as is to be expected. Few minor scratches near the cutting edge.
Weight: 421.3 g (excl. stand), 796.1 g (incl. stand)
Dimensions: Length 15.4 cm (excl. stand), 19.9 cm (incl. stand)
With an associated metal stand. (2)
While collectively termed ‘axe’ in English, jade axes have variations of translations in Chinese. Ceremonial jades of a trapezoidal form with a straight or curved edge would be named ‘yue’, produced for a long duration of time from the Neolithic period to the Zhou dynasty. As a ceremonial weapon, jade ‘yue’ symbolized power in ancient Chinese culture, it was attached to a wood pole to be carried by officials as an emblem of authority.
Jade axes such as the present lot are much rarer than bi disks or even the cong tube, as they were seemingly reserved for only the most elite tombs and there is usually only one such axe found in each of these tombs.
Literature comparison:
Compare a related russet jade axe, Neolithic period, Liangzhu culture, 16.3 cm long, in the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art, accession number F1916.498.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 9 October 2023, lot 3711
Price: HKD 279,400 or approx. EUR 32,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A large mottled green jade axe, Neolithic period, Liangzhu culture
Expert remark: Compare the closely related form, manner of carving, and color of the stone. Note the slightly larger size (20.6 cm).
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Christie’s London, 6 November 2012, lot 74
Price: GBP 15,000 or approx. EUR 28,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A mottled jade axe, Neolithic period, Liangzhu culture, 3rd millennium BC
Expert remark: Compare the closely related form, manner of carving, and color of the stone. Note the similar size (17.7 cm).
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