AN EXCEPTIONALLY LARGE CRESCENT-SHAPED BRONZE AXE, DONG SON CULTURE Vietnam, first millennium BC. Massively cast with a curved blade and slightly splayed socket, the manifold ornamental decorations no longer identifiable in detail due to extensive encrustations from burial.

Provenance: Bruno Cooper, Norwich, United Kingdom, 2002. An important Italian private collection, acquired from the above.
Condition: Some repair and touchups as generally expected from ancient Dong Son excavations. Losses, fissures, erosion and corrosion. Minor casting flaws. Overall, still very good condition, especially for such a large piece. Fine malachite-green patina with brown encrustations.

Weight: 9.8 kg
Dimensions: Length 71 cm

Expert’s note: The present axe is of exceptional size. No other ancient Dong Son example of comparable dimension has ever been recorded in any private or public collection.

Literature comparison: The Metropolitan Museum of Art has several Dong Son culture axes in its collection, accession nos. 1988.143.108, 1988.143.109, 1988.143.110, and 2001.433.327. These axes are all of significantly smaller size, however. Compare also a later Indonesian crescent-shaped ax head (chandrasa), dated c. 500 BC to 300 AD, which is of related but more slender form and only slightly smaller size (61 cm long), in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 2000.284.49, where the author notes that “late Dong Son axe heads […] provided prototypes for the exaggerated examples produced in Indonesia”. 東山文化大型新月形青銅斧
越南，約公元前1000年。大量銅斧，彎曲的刀片和略微張開的插槽。由於長期埋于土中，產生了大面積結殼，因此無法仔細識別各種裝飾紋飾。

來源：英國諾維奇Bruno Cooper收藏，2002年。一個重要義大利私人收藏，購於上述收藏。
品相：從古代東山考古挖掘中普遍存在的一些修復。缺損、裂縫、侵蝕和腐蝕。輕微鑄造缺陷。總的來說，狀況良好，尤其是他的尺寸如此之大。棕色結殼的孔雀石綠包漿。

重量：9.8 公斤
尺寸：長 71 厘米

專家注釋：銅斧頭尺寸之大，在任何私人或公共收藏中都沒有記錄過其他如此尺寸的東山出土的青銅斧。
文獻比較：美國紐約大都會博物館收藏了幾件東山文化青銅斧，見編號 1988.143.108, 1988.143.109, 1988.143.110, 與 2001.433.327. 然而，這些銅斧的尺寸都小得多。再比較後來的公元前500至公元300年的印度尼西亞新月形斧頭，相近但更細長，尺寸略小（長61 厘米），收藏於大都會藝術博物館，編號 2000.284.49，作者註明“晚東山 斧頭 […] 為印度尼西亞生產的例子提供了原型”。