Importante lame cérémonielle en jade Période Néolithique, ca. 2000-1200 avant J.-C.

la longue et fine lame quadrangulaire percée par le haut de trois orifices près du côté long coupé droit, le côté opposé légèrement arrondi au bord nettement taillé en biseau et s'évasant vers le bord inférieur oblique, la face inférieure plate, la pierre de couleur noire avec quelques inclusions laiteuses et brunes, la surface entière soigneusement polie

Collection of A. W. Bahr (1877-1959), no. L 47.115.
The Pan Asian Collection, New York, offered as part of the Pan Asian Collection in Christie's New York, 1st December 1982, lot 205.
Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, New York, 1995.

The blade is finely and evenly carved, the stone a beautiful mottled dark green, almost black colour, smoothly polished on both sides. One side of the blade is flat. The bevelled cutting edge is with numerous small chips, the largest measuring ca. 2 x 0.5 cm, 1.5 x 0.4 cm and 1 x 0.5 cm wide (all visible in the catalogue illustration). The edges of the blade may have been polished. There are shallow fritts to the middle perforation on one side of the blade and minor old fritts to both trapezoidal sides.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
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Large ceremonial blades carved from jade form an important object category among jade-working Neolithic cultures of eastern and western China. A magnificent and very large jade blade included in the 1975 Exhibition The Great Bronze Age of China, New York, 1980, no. 3, is generally considered one of the largest blades of this type. Like the present example, it is remarkable for its size and the extreme thinness of the blade. A number of slightly conical perforations parallel to and near the long side of the blade suggest a handle.

The present simple and plain blade with its carefully beveled cutting edge is carved from a very dark green, almost black jade. It is closely related to a group of jade ceremonial blades of similarly large size and colour discovered in a hoard in Shenmu Shimao, Shaanxi province, in the early part of the 20th century, that have been dated to between the late Neolithic and Shang period (ca. 2500-1200 BC). Quite a few of these long thin ceremonial blades entered Western collections shortly after the discovery of the hoard. Compare two blades in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, published in Harold Peterson, Chinese Jades: Archaic and Modern from the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, London, 1977, pp. 68-71, nos. 45 and 47; two further blades from the Sonnenschein Collection and now in the Art Institute of Chicago, are illustrated in Alfred Salmony, Archaic Chinese Jades from the Edward and Louise B. Sonnenschein Collection, Chicago, 1952, nos. 50.313 and 50.317. Another large jade blade also from the collection of A. W. Bahr and now in the Field Museum, Chicago, is illustrated in Berthold Laufer, Archaic Chinese Jades collected in China by A. W. Bahr now in the Field Museum of Natural History Chicago, New York, 1927, pl. V.1.