Expert authentication: Dr. Gu Fang has examined the present lot and guarantees its authenticity and the dating above. He assessed it as a piece of notably good quality. A signed copy of Dr. Gu's expertise, dated 16 March 2006, accompanies this lot.
Dr. Gu Fang (born 1962) is an internationally renowned scholar of Chinese art and a leading authority on jades. He graduated from the Department of Archaeology at the prestigious Beijing University in 1986 and later studied at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), where he now serves as a Senior Fellow specializing in archaeological excavations and Chinese jade research. A former visiting scholar at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, he has authored several books on Chinese jades, including the 15-volume The Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China (2007), one of the most comprehensive studies of its kind, as well as Chinese Jade: The Spiritual and Cultural Significance of Jade in China (2012).

China, 1600-1050 BC. The axe of flattened form with a rounded blade below three hafting holes pierced to the upper section, each side neatly incised with a taotie mask with curled brows and elongated eyes. The translucent stone is of a celadon color with gray cloudy patches and veins as well as russet inclusions.

Provenance: From a private collection in New York, United States. Two labels inscribed with inventory numbers, ‘317’ and ‘110114’.
Condition: Very good condition, commensurate with age. Ancient wear, minor signs of weathering and erosion, thick encrustations and areas of corrosion indicating a prolonged period of burial, tiny nibbles to edges, the stone with natural fissures, some of which may have developed into small hairline cracks.

Weight: 232 g
Dimensions: Length 17 cm

While collectively termed 'axe' in English, jade axes have variations of translations in Chinese. Ceremonial jades of a trapezoidal form with a straight or curved edge would be named yue, produced for a long duration of time from the Neolithic period to the Zhou dynasty. As a ceremonial weapon, jade yue symbolized power in ancient Chinese culture. This jade yue would have been attached to a wood pole to be carried by officials as an emblem of authority.

Literature comparison:
Compare a related jade axe carved with taotie mask, dated to the late Shang dynasty, in the National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, accession number S1987.698. Compare a related jade axe, qi, dated to the Shang dynasty, in the Shanghai Museum. Compare a related jade axe with taotie mask design, dated to the Shang dynasty, 9.8 cm long, in the Minneapolis Institute of Art, accession number 50.46.276.