Feb., 1912. 



Jade. 



75 



I here add two other bronze hatchets of the Han period which offer 

 a still more striking analogy to the stone spades. Both are in my col- 

 lection in the American Museum, New York, and were obtained at 

 Si-ngan fu in 1903. The one shown in Fig. 12 (15.3 cm X 6.5 cm) 

 comes nearest of all to the supposed ancestral form and has, of course, 

 assumed under the clever hands of the Chinese bronze-caster a more 





Fig. 13. 

 Bronze Hatchet of Han Period. 



regular and graceful appearance. The two shoulders and the head- 

 piece have remained, and the socket is wanting. The headpiece was 

 stuck into the cleft of the wooden hilt, the section decorated with 

 meanders being left uncovered and projecting freely. Cords or leashes 

 passing through the two rectangular apertures in the butt were fastened 

 around the hilt. The blade is covered with three triangles filled, so 

 to speak, with triangular convolute spirals; below these, two crescents 

 surround a circle in slight relief. The significance of the whole orna- 

 mental composition is beyond our knowledge. The bronze axe in 

 Fig. 13 (18 cm X 18 cm) shows the same head-piece without socket, 

 and in the butt three large round perforations (each about 3 cm in 

 diameter), an axe-shaped ornament in relief being between each circle 



