A rare archaic bronze 'bird' dagger, geLate Shang Dynasty, 12th-11th century BC|Tapering gently from the guard towards a pointed tip with a raised central ridge, the angular hilt at the end cast as an archaistic head of a bird, with Japanese box and cover. 27.6cm (10 7/8in) long (2).|商末（公元前十二至十一世紀） 青銅歧冠鳥形曲內戈|Provenance: Yamanaka & Co., Kyoto|A European private collection, acquired from the above on 30 May 1965|來源： 京都古董商山中商會|歐洲私人收藏，於1965年5月30日購自上者|A similar excavated example, late Shang dynasty, was unearthed at Anyang, Henan province in 1975, see Zhongguo Qingtongqi Quanji 3. Shang 3, Beijing, 1997, p.204, no.203; see also a similar dagger illustrated by W.P.Yetts, The George Eumorfopoulos Collection, vol.I, London, 1940, p.68, pl.LXXII.|Compare also another dagger from the C.H.Wang collection, illustrated in Shang and Zhou Chinese Bronze Weaponry, Taipei, 1993, pp.98-99, no.6.|A pair of similar 'bird' daggers was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong on 5 April 2016, lot 2816; another similar dagger was sold at Sotheby's Paris on 16 December 2015, lot 9.