Niuweidao: Chinese "broadsword"

[Neil Anderson]

Cool. Thanks. How old is it?
It has almost no curvature. More of a falchion than a sabre.

That is always the big question for me when I see pieces like this. Unfortunately there appears to be very little evidence available to us at this time to really pin down concrete dates for these things. The "Boxer" uprising era is a convenient term often used when describing many Chinese weapons found today, but I think its use is less than accurate. The fact that broad western world attention was being focused on China at that time, and related photographic evidence is available because of that attention lends itself to the c.1900 labels given to many of these types of swords. That being said, I am going to propose a more liberal estimation of its age 1860-1920.

I have also attaches an interesting image below of an old postcard. I am not sure of its exact date. Although its makers were active in Shanghai from 1898-1919.

[GeneChing]

Check out our 2005 January/February Sword Collector's Special. There's an article that addresses different kinds of dao - An Introduction to Chinese Single-Edged Hilt Weapons (Dao) and Their Use in the Ming and Qing Dynasties By Phillip M. W. Tom with Scott M. Rodell

[taaigihk]

That is always the big question for me when I see pieces like this. Unfortunately there appears to be very little evidence available to us at this time to really pin down concrete dates for these things. The "Boxer" uprising era is a convenient term often used when describing many Chinese weapons found today, but I think its use is less than accurate. The fact that broad western world attention was being focused on China at that time, and related photographic evidence is available because of that attention lends itself to the c.1900 labels given to many of these types of swords. That being said, I am going to propose a more liberal estimation of its age 1860-1920.

I have also attaches an interesting image below of an old postcard. I am not sure of its exact date. Although its makers were active in Shanghai from 1898-1919.

Interesting. Thanks.

You may take a look at the pic below (alas of poor quality) that shows Chinese daos at the Warsaw Military Museum (mainly from XIX century as I recall):

[SteveLau]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neil Anderson View Post
Thanks for sharing the sword above. Here is one from my collection. It is less embellished and more what the collecting community refers to as a "village made" piece. From my experience though it is a relatively common form and construction method, as well as length. I think it is a nice representative example of this type of utilitarian Chinese weapon.
31'' overall - 24.5" blade
1.5" forte width
1.75" width at oxtail flair
1 lbs. 12 oz. total weight

The dimension is perfect fit to me. But it is a bit over weight. Less 8 oz. will be good. As for the sword tip, I can use such tip even though it is not my ideal one.

Good sharing!



Regards,

KC
Hong Kong