Details

LOT 1075

Chinese Bronze Military Flag or Banner Finial

CIRCA 5TH-3RD CENTURY B.C. OR LATER

13 3/8 in. (873 grams, 34 cm).

Composed of a socketted blade divided into six sections with sharp grooves, the shaft with four circumferential bands.

Provenance

Ex old English collection.
London art market, pre 2000.
Property of a London, UK, gentleman.

Literature

Cf. Gorelik, M., Weapons of Ancient East, IV millennium BC-IV century BC, Saint Petersburg (2003), pl.XXXVIII, nos.54, 58-59, for similar.

Footnotes

The Chinese, having adopted the use of chariot from the west, judging by the monuments and literature used it primarily for archery combat, as evidenced by the absence of spearheads in chariot burials of the Yin Kingdom. But already from the early Zhou Dynasty chariot warriors used a spear. Massive Yin spears were the weapon of dense infantry formations. The shape of our specimen, probably used as standard finial, recalls that of a spear from Zhongzhoulu, Luoyang, Prov. Henan, dated at the 5th-4th centuries B.C., and of two spears from the Zheng fortress of Xinzheng Country, dated to the 4th-3rd century B.C.