China, circa 3300-2200 BC. The broad axe flares towards the slightly beveled cutting edge, the butt end pierced with a circular aperture. The smoothly polished stone is of a yellowish celadon tone with dark gray and cloudy inclusions as well as areas of calcification.

Provenance: From the collection of Paolo Bertuzzi. Paolo Bertuzzi (1943-2022) was a fashion stylist from Bologna, Italy. He was the son of Enrichetta Bertuzzi, founder of Hettabretz, a noted Italian fashion company with customers such as the Rothschild family, Audrey Hepburn, and Elizabeth Taylor. Paolo Bertuzzi later took over his mother's business and designed exclusive pieces, some of which were exhibited in the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum in New York, USA. He was also an avid collector of antiques for more than 60 years. His collection includes both archaic and contemporary art, and he edited two important books about Asian art, Goa Made - An Archaeological Discovery, about a large-scale archaeological project carried out with the Italian and Indonesian governments, and Majapahit, Masterpieces from a Forgotten Kingdom.
Condition: Good condition, commensurate with age. Extensive wear, obvious losses, signs of weathering and erosion, encrustations. The stone with natural fissures, some of which may have developed into small hairline cracks over time.

Weight: 123.5 g
Dimensions: Height 14 cm

Expert's note: Jade axes such as the present lot are rarer than bi disks or even cong tubes, as they appear to have been reserved for only the most elite tombs, where there is usually only one such axe found in each tomb. For example, see a closely related jade axe excavated at the Fanshan site in Yuhang District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, where the tomb contains hundreds of jade and stone wares including jade cong, bi, and stone axes but only one axe made from jade, see Quanli yu xinyang: liangzhu yizhi kaogu tezhan (Power and Belief: A Special Exhibition of Liangzhu Archaeological Excavation Sites), Beijing, 2015, pp. 169-179.

Literature comparison:
Compare related jade axes of similar shape, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Unearthed Jades in China, vol. 7, Beijing, 2005, p. 15, and ibid., vol. 8, pp. 44, nos. 110 and 137.