Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

BluErf · 4th February 2007, 01:00 PM

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Hmmm... somehow, when the Chinese names are translated into English, they sound tacky.

But they are quite beautiful in Chinese.

The state of antique Chinese jian and dao these days are quite sad. Most of the old pieces are neglected and rusted, and the best pieces are in museum or private collections in Taiwan. European museums hold the remainder. Not much left in China's own museums. And then we have the problem of fakes which became an industry centuries ago in China.

I emailed Alex earlier today to ask about the pommel ring in Chinese jian. He says that pommel rings were first found in Chinese Jian from the Han dynasty to the Ming dynasty. Pommel rings in dao became popular in the Qing dynasty.

There's a couple of links to a Chinese forum showing some jian with pommel ring, though more elaborate in design:

http://hfsword.com/bbs/viewthread.ph...%CD%AD%2Bwudao
[This link leads to thread on a bronze sword with a silver hilt with pommel ring. Discussion revolves around whether the hilt was original to the blade or added later on. Even with x-ray analysis, it was not conclusive. Some other pictures of another hilt with pommel ring (no blade) and a Han dynasty short jian with pommel ring.]

http://hfsword.com/bbs/viewthread.ph...B6%B7%C5%A3%2B
[This link leads to a thread on a Ming dynasty sword with a very elaborate pommel ring.]

4th February 2007, 01:00 PM	#13
BluErf Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Singapore Posts: 1,180	Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Hmmm... somehow, when the Chinese names are translated into English, they sound tacky. But they are quite beautiful in Chinese. The state of antique Chinese jian and dao these days are quite sad. Most of the old pieces are neglected and rusted, and the best pieces are in museum or private collections in Taiwan. European museums hold the remainder. Not much left in China's own museums. And then we have the problem of fakes which became an industry centuries ago in China. I emailed Alex earlier today to ask about the pommel ring in Chinese jian. He says that pommel rings were first found in Chinese Jian from the Han dynasty to the Ming dynasty. Pommel rings in dao became popular in the Qing dynasty. There's a couple of links to a Chinese forum showing some jian with pommel ring, though more elaborate in design: http://hfsword.com/bbs/viewthread.ph...%CD%AD%2Bwudao [This link leads to thread on a bronze sword with a silver hilt with pommel ring. Discussion revolves around whether the hilt was original to the blade or added later on. Even with x-ray analysis, it was not conclusive. Some other pictures of another hilt with pommel ring (no blade) and a Han dynasty short jian with pommel ring.] http://hfsword.com/bbs/viewthread.ph...B6%B7%C5%A3%2B [This link leads to a thread on a Ming dynasty sword with a very elaborate pommel ring.]