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Lot Essay
An eminent art historian and professor of Chinese art at Harvard University from 1960 to 1974, Max Loehr was a recognized authority on archaic bronzes, jades and paintings, and published prodigiously in these fields.
A sword of comparable size (60.5 cm long), with a similar turquoise-inlaid guard and collars, is illustrated by M. Loehr in Chinese Bronze Age Weapons, University of Michigan, 1956, pl. XXXVIII (no. 98). The author's description of the patina (p. 203) also appears to be very similar to that of the present sword. A detail of sword no. 97, pl. XL, which also features turquoise inlay on the guard and rings, shows remains of fine fibers wrapped around the hilt just below the pommel, similar to those observed on the present sword. Compare another related turquoise-inlaid sword inscribed with the phrase 'given by decree from the King of Yue' in the Zhejiang Provincial Museum, Hangzhou, dated early Warring States period, and illustrated in Zhongguo Qingtongqi Quanji -11 - Dong Zhou 5, Beijing, pp. 96-7, nos.101-104.
A sword of comparable size (60.5 cm long), with a similar turquoise-inlaid guard and collars, is illustrated by M. Loehr in Chinese Bronze Age Weapons, University of Michigan, 1956, pl. XXXVIII (no. 98). The author's description of the patina (p. 203) also appears to be very similar to that of the present sword. A detail of sword no. 97, pl. XL, which also features turquoise inlay on the guard and rings, shows remains of fine fibers wrapped around the hilt just below the pommel, similar to those observed on the present sword. Compare another related turquoise-inlaid sword inscribed with the phrase 'given by decree from the King of Yue' in the Zhejiang Provincial Museum, Hangzhou, dated early Warring States period, and illustrated in Zhongguo Qingtongqi Quanji -11 - Dong Zhou 5, Beijing, pp. 96-7, nos.101-104.