A BRONZE BLADE, DAO
China, late Shang – early Zhou dynasty

The object consisting of a flat blade along which a sequence of raised umbons, on the opposite side three cylinders for the passage of the socket probably made of wood

28,5 cm lenght

Provenance : Fabrizio Savi collection, acquired in the early 2000s.
The shape of this blade is quite rare in the production of archaic Chinese military bronzes. We wish to recall here the piece in the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington (A descriptive and illustrative catalogue of Chinese bronzes acquired during the administration of John Ellerton Lodge. Compiled by the staff of the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington 1946, pp. 94-95, pl. 47), decorated with an incised chilong dragon, characterized by a similar three-cylinders system for the wooden stick.