Ceremonial Dagger-Axe with Animal Masks (Ge) (c. 1600–1050 BCE): Art, History and Details

Ceremonial Dagger-Axe with Animal Masks (Ge) (c. 1600–1050 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Jade is an extremely hard material. In ancient China, it was carved or ground with fine abrasives, such as quartz sand, affixed to cutting or drilling tools. The form of this jade (ge, ceremonial dagger axe), was likely derived from similarly shaped bronze weapons. The pointed and slightly curved blade was symmetrically carved. It seems to emerge from the mouth of the taotie, the animal mask. The taotie’s curved horns were carved in relief bands; its eyes, snout, and upper jaw are delineated in threadlike relief. Similar taotie designs are also seen on bronze vessels of the same period. The hole in the tang indicates where the blade was originally attached to a wooden shaft.

Object facts

• Title: Ceremonial Dagger-Axe with Animal Masks (Ge)
• Date: c. 1600–1050 BCE
• Culture: China, Shang dynasty (c. 1600–c. 1046 BCE)
• Type: Jade
• Technique: jade (nephrite)
• Dimensions: Overall: 4.4 cm (1 3/4 in.)
• Collection: China - Shang Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1983.2

A detail from the museum

Traces of vermilion or cinnabar remain on the taotie mask design.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• McNamee, Harriet. Chinese Art from the Ferris Luboshez Collection. [Exhibition Held at] University of Maryland Art Gallery, March 23 - April 30, 1972. College Park: University of Maryland Dept. of Art, 1972.
• Sotheby's, New York. Important Chinese Ceramics, Bronzes and Works of Art: the Collection of Captain S.N. Ferris Luboshez, USN (Ret'd). 18 November 1982. Lot 23.
• Turner, Evan H. “Year in Review for 1983.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 71, no. 2 (February 1984): 38–79.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.