A RARE ARCHAIC BRONZE SPEARHEAD (MAO)SHANG DYNASTY |

well cast with the leaf-shaped blade extending to a hollow conical socket decorated with four upright triangular cicada motifs above two circular whorls separated by abstract angular scrollwork, set near the bottom with a pair of loops, the surface with malachite and cuprite encrustation

Collection of Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978).

Although typical in form of Shang dynasty spearheads, the present lot is notable for having a cast design on the socket. Compare a closely related example, in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Zhongguo wenwu jinghua daquan qingtongjuan [Compendium of Chinese art. Bronzes], Taipei, 1993, cat. no. 242; and another, from the Avery Brundage Collection, now in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, acc. no. B60B762. Most spearheads of this type are undecorated, such as a large group excavated from tomb 1004 at Xibeigang, Anyang, Henan provenance, currently in the collection of Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, included in the exhibition King Wu Ding and Lady Hao. Art and Culture of the Late Shang Dynasty, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2012, cat. no. IV-1; and two sold in these rooms,  8th November 1980, lot 5, and 7th December 1983, lot 65.