A VERY RARE BRONZE AND METEORIC IRON DAGGER OR KNIFE, CHINA, Shang Dynasty (16th cent. - ca. 1050 / 1027 B.C.), L.: 21,0 cm; meteoric iron blade: 13,8 cm. The deeper sections of the handle with a greyish-green smooth patina had very probably originally been adorned with inlays of malachite or turquoise pieces. The slender curving blade of blackish iron with initially sharp cutting edge of the dagger or knife had due to its fragility and by the time suffered and is partly broken off, and the rough and irregular surface of the meteoric iron had in consideration of its extreme rareness and also very high value has certainly not been used daily or as a weapon, but was very much appreciated and esteemed as a highly prestigeous and important object, because such a kind of dagger had been granted to and permitted only for wealthy and high ranking members of the upper class.This type of precious object continued to be in use during the Western and Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the still very rare meteoric iron had been since the eighth century B.C. more and more replaced by wrought iron which has been imported by the increasing trade via the different silk roads from the Near East countries and around the middle of the Chunqiu period (Spring and Autumn Annals, 722-476 B.C.) in China had been constructed the first blast furnaces to produce cast iron and since the Zhanguo period (Warring States, 475-221 B.C.) they succeeded to produce wrought iron and later also steel in the Han Dynasty 206 B.C.-220 AD. One remark to a characteristic feature and property of meteoric iron, its composition contains between 5 to 18 % nickel (Ni) in contrast to the iron ore on earth which does not contain nickel - Property from a Rhineland private collection, assembled prior to 1980 - Compare: KUBOSOU MUSEUM OF ART, IZUMI: THIRD KUBOSOU COLLECTION EGUCHI JIRÔ COLLECTION, 2001, PLATE VOLUME: an almost identical knife of same shape and probably the blade also of meteorit-iron and with a bronze handle, here ending with a small oval ring-shaped terminal, L. 25,4 cm, # 151;- Bonham's London, 5.11.2009, # 2. a bronze ibex-headed dagger.L. 34,5 cm, Shang Dynasty, excavated at Anyang by repute; -# 149, an early bronze ibex-headed dagger with curved blade, L. 35,5 cm, Shang Dynasty; - Lally Oriental Art, NY, "Chinese archaic jades and bronzes from the estate of Professor Max Loehr and others", June 4 to 30, 1993, # 112 a gilt bronze knife Zhanguo period (475-221 B.C.) with further references to another knife with curved blade and ring shaped terminal, exhibited 1991 at the Ôsaka Municipal Museum, published in the catalogue # 144 "Chugoku sengoku jidai no bijutsu" (Chinese Art of the Warring States period) - Lally Oriental Art, NY, "Chinese Bronzes", 19 3 to 9 4, 2011, # 23 a bronze knife with a handle in form of a mythical beast, Western Zhou Dynasty (1027-771 B.C.) with slender curved blade, L. 10 cm, with reference to a similar knife unearthed 1983 from a late Western Zhou tomb at Yu village, Ning County, Gansu Province - Traces of age, partly corroded