Beschreibung:

AN EXCEPTIONALLY RARE AND IMPORTANT ARCHAIC TURQUOISE-INLAID BRONZE SWORD LATE SPRING AND AUTUMN - EARLY WARRING STATES PERIOD the fine blade well cast with a crisp median ridge and beveled edges tapering toward a pointed tip, the cylindrical hilt encircled by two flanges with abstract scrollwork, below a wing-shaped guard decorated on either side with a stylized mythical beast mask, all above a disc-shaped pommel, one side of the blade with two columns of inscription, each comprising six characters in niaochongzhuan (bird-worm seal script) reading Caigongzi Cong zhiyong (for the use of Cong, son of the Marquis of Cai), the inscription, guard and handle flanges inlaid with turquoise, the other side plain, the surface with areas of malachite encrustation Length 20 1/8 in., 51 cm Read Condition Report Read Condition Report Register or Log-in to view condition report Or Saleroom Notice Provenance C.T. Loo, New York, 1941. Collection of Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978). Exhibited An Exhibition of Chinese Bronzes, C.T. Loo & Co., New York, 1939, cat. no. 47. An Exhibition of Ancient Chinese Ritual Bronzes Loaned by C.T. Loo & Co., The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, 1940, cat. no. 55. Exhibition of Chinese Arts, C.T. Loo & Co., New York, 1941, cat. no. 104. Literature Xu Naichang, ed., Anhui tongzhi jinshi guwu kaogao [Manuscript of studying archaic bronze and antiquities from Anhui], vol. 16, Anhui, 1936, p. 6. Shodō zenshū [Complete volumes of calligraphy], vol. 1: Chūgoku [China] I, Tokyo, 1965, p. 107. Zhou Fagao, Sandai jijin wencun bu [Supplements of surviving writings from the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties] Taipei, 1980, no. 845. Yan Yiping, Jinwen Zongji [Corpus of bronze inscriptions], Taipei, 1983, no. 7690. Cao Jinyan and Zhang Guangyu, ed., Dongzhou niaozhuan wenzi bian [Compilation of bird seal script from the Eastern Zhou dynasty], Hong Kong, 1994, no. 31. Cui Hengsheng, Anhui chutu jinwen dingbu [Inscriptions on archaic bronze excavated in Anhui: addendum], Anhui, 1998,